ReelQ: The Beautiful Boxer

The Beautiful Boxer is the controversial 2003 biopic detailing the helter-skelter life of transgender (‘kathoey’) Muay Thai fighter, Nong Thoom.  The film, while winning awards and nominations in Europe, Asia and America raised temperatures in Thailand where censors felt aggrieved by the extreme frontal nudity which made the film popular elsewhere.

The Beautiful Boxer deals with the life of Nong Thoom.  Nong had always been aware of her gender and her biological complications from a young age and after spending time in a Buddhist monastery, decided to pursue boxing and Muay Thai as a means of paying to support her under privileged parents and get a sex change operation.  She was dubbed The Beautiful Boxer as a result of her first fight where she beat and then passionately kissed a much larger opponent.

The Beautiful Boxer continued to rise to fame as a successful lady-boy boxer at the prestigious Lumprini Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.  At the epicenter of all things Muay Thai, The Beautiful Boxer went on to become a champion in mid 1998.  Having revitalized the Muay Thai scene in Thailand (and across the globe), The Beautiful Boxer announced a shock retirement when she had enough money to release her parents from financial hardship and she finally underwent her reassignment operation in early 1999.