Philippine E-Journals

In the Mainstream of Thai Queer Cinema: Beautiful Boxer (2003)

Oradol Kaewprasert

Discipline: Performing Arts

 

Abstract:

The paper "In the Mainstream of Thai Queer Cinema: Beautiful Boxer (2003)" is a part of Dr. Oradol Kaewprasert's doctoral thesis at the University of Essex entitled "Gender Representation in Thai Queer Cinema." The paper traces the birth of the film "Beautiful Boxer" that breaks the monotony and stereotypes in the presentation of queer subjects and themes in Thai Cinema during the early 2000. As discussed by the paper, the film's story is about and is being narrated by the talented boxer, a male to female transsexual in real life, Nong Toom who fights on the ring as a man for her to be valued as a woman. Dr. Kaewprasert discusses how "Beautiful Boxer" ultimately expresses a feeling of self-restoration and a deconstruction of queer character stereotypes that greatly differs from other Thai Queer films. The film breaks with all the clichés of Thai queer characters: camp, screaming, and loud. In terms of the narrative style, the film permits the presentation of the subject speaking from her own perspective. It conveys a great sense of liberty since it considers the prospect of sexual diversity, which the viewers experience through a vast spectrum of facets of the character's life. Throughout the film, audiences are made to feel part of Toom's thoughts outside. The film succeeds remarkably, in the age of Thai commercial queer cinema, in establishing the appearance and subjectivity of a queer character within a broader cultural tradition.