SWITCH HITTERS - Review

From The Hollywood Reporter April 4-8,2000, by James East

A film about transvestite volleyball players takes off in anything-goes Thailand

First it was a ghost. Now the country‘s gays and transvestites are proving to be a boxoffice smash in Thailand.

"Satree Lex" (Iron Women) is Thailand‘s surprise hot season hit featuring the bizarre but true story of a volleyball team of gays, transvestites and straights who won Thailand’s national men‘s title in 1996.

In the two weeks since the comedy’s release it has scored $1.7 million at the boxoffice, making it already the second most popular Thai film ever after last year’s ghost story hit "Nang Nak" which spirited in $4 million from the boxoffice. The $270,000 movie was funded by Tai Entertainment, the company responsible for "Nang Nak."

Thai Theatres have promised to show "Iron Women" until interest wanes. International film festival organizers have also requested the film.

No director has been brave enough to shoot a movie about Thailand‘s transvestite since the 1980s when "Phlang Sudthai" (The Last Song) told the story of a cabaret singer who commites suicide. "Iron Women" is about the volleyball team’s progress in a national championship and the prejudices they face on and off court.

Transvestite are frequently show on local TV soaps as screeching, overdressed characters playing for cheap laughs. Their prevalence so infuriated the government that it recently tried to persuade TV stations to cut them out of the soaps as a harmful influence on the nation‘s morals.

But director Yongyooth Thongkonthun, 33 uses his comedy to explore the feelings of transvestites and ascribes the film‘s success to Thais’ appreciation of their status as underdogs.

"Before it cam out everyone told me it was going to be a flop. Gays and sports movies have always flopped here," director says. "This is the first Thai comedy in three years. The style is very touching to Thais. I think everyone is interested in the subject of gays."

He may well be right. Bangkok is the sex-change capital of Southeast Asia and it is not uncommon to see transvestites on the street or in the capital‘s red-light districts. However, most Thais either frown on or joke about such behavior. Even during filming the actors bad to put up with lewd comments from onlookers who really believed the actors were gay or transvestite.

Yongyooth believes his movie is helping to change opinions. "We have our own Website and people have been sharing their attitudes on it. They tell us they have a better feeling about gays and now look at them differently," he said.

"Iron Women" is Yongyooth‘s first movie. Like "Nang Nak" director Nonzee Nimitbulr, Yongyooth works in the advertising industry and is more accustomed to making shampoo commercial.

Although the film is only roughly based on real-life characters, scriptwriter Wisurcichai Bunyakarnjana spent months getting to know the volleyball players, with the final screenplay being pulled together by another writer who never met the team.

The director also refused to be tempted to use exciting camera angles, emotional background music or sophisticated lighting setups, preferring to create a "realistic" film that allows viewers to focus on its witty dialogue.

The movie had clearly gone down well with the original team of Iron Women who last week proved they had lost none of their sporting prowess. In a friendly match, the former national winners thrashed the cast of "Satree Lex" in front of a crowd of adoring fans.