Beautiful Boxer (2003)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Just perfect...

I wanted to but couldn't!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

"A Beautiful Boxer" tells a touching story of a girl born into the wrong body, and who, through boxing, would eventually be able to become one through surgery. It's a story about overcoming one's fate.Nong Toom was interested in dancing, putting on girl's makeup, and wearing woman's clothes from a very early age. His mother comments at the very beginning of the story that it was "just a fad", but it soon becomes clear that this isn't a phase; it's just the story of boy who should have been born a girl.The writing and filming is solid and so is the pacing with the exception of a few moments. But what makes this film rise above its technical merits is its heart. The acting is superb. At some points, you forget that you're just watching a movie because it's clear that the actors, especially Nong Toom's Asanee Suwan, are really becoming their characters. Thanks to this, we get a plethora of heartfelt moments and really get a feel for a subject area that is relatively untouched, transsexuals. Sometimes transsexuals get a bad rep, but the fact is that these are real people who have to overcome the exceptional struggle of coming to term with their own gender identity while the people around you despise you, bully you, and at times make your life a living hell because they don't really understand.Overall, Nong Toom is an exceptional movie with a psychological edge that is harshly realistic. I recommend it to everyone, because I believe it's a story that everyone should be familiar with. Transgenderism isn't as rare as people think.

Beautiful Boxer is the story of transgender kickboxer Noom Tong, born in a male body and feeling female in her soul, using the God given martial arts skills, to change her gender and become at one with herself. The Thai cast in this production is nearly perfect in presenting her story.Among the many issues facing transgender individuals is the staggering cost of reassignment surgeries and that even in the face of overwhelming medical and psychological evidence to the contrary, insurance companies still regard a sex change as elective cosmetic surgery. The same classification as they would give a rhinoplasty, nose job to most of you.As it turns out Thailand is one of a few countries where transgender people go for surgeries. It's expensive and therein lies the tale of Beautiful Boxer. Noom Tang uses the prize monies won in kickboxing to pay for her surgery. While transitioning, she faces a whole lot of evil, but she literally kicks her way out.Watching this film I was struck with the similarity of this film and Flawless. In Flawless Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a drag entertainer who by chance finds a drug dealer's stash after a shooting and keeps it to pay for her reassignment surgery. It would probably have taken her twenty years of drag shows in order to pay for what she needed. A marketable skill, but not quite marketable enough as kickboxing.I hope that those who watch the film think of the many who can't earn it, win it, steal it, or stumble on the funds needed. If Beautiful Boxer can make people think about that, it's a public service film.Or you can just enjoy it and be downright inspired.

I had never heard of the movie before I watched it, but I thought it was very well done. This film shows the intense internal story of Toom, a transsexual as he grows up in a mostly unaccepting society. One of the more interesting things about the movie is that it unfolds against the beautiful but unfamiliar Thai setting. The movie does a great job of revealing the culture and the art of Thai boxing as Toom carefully tip toes his way through society, and merely tries to live the only life that he feels comfortable with. The directing, acting, and story telling were all spot on. The story is told well and the insight into the life of someone that extraordinary is well done. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this unique picture that not all producers would consider worth their time.

Beautiful Boxer a coming of age story about a man who wants to be female. In order to earn a living and save enough money, he starts to kick box on a dare at a temple festival. As time goes on, it shows how he is finally accepted by his group of friends who are also boxers. Yes, there were several missteps by his friends, but overall they accepted him for he is, and who they wanted him to be. It is refreshing to see a third gender represented in another culture, without the shame and stigma attached to it. In this culture we are so obsessed with being perfect and correct that we sometimes alienate ourselves from our friends and families.Jules