In
1996 a mostly gay Thai volleyball team, the first of its kind,
won the national amateur championship. The Iron Ladies
(Sa-ree-lex), a film based on the story with clips
from some of the games as credits roll, won Audience Awards
for best feature film in the New York and San Francisco Lesbian
& Gay Film Festivals. Volleyball competition in Thailand
starts within various geographic districts and then progresses
to the national level. When the film begins, a very masculine
Mon (played by Sahaparp Virakamin) is disappointed that the
coach does not select him for the District 5 team because
he is gay. However, the coach becomes unavailable for unexplained
reasons, so the athletic coordinator names a replacement,
Bee (played by Siridhana Hongsophon), a lesbian. Bee insists
on selecting her own team, so everyone has to try out again.
Bee then picks Mon, several straight players, and a much more
effeminate gay, Jung (played by Chaichan Nimpoonsawas). The
macho straights, however, revolt, insisting that they will
not play with gays on the team. Bee then asks Mon and Jung
to recruit other gays, and they locate various friends, even
going to an army boot camp to get Sergeant Nong (played by
Giorgio Maiocchi) and to a gay cabaret for transsexual Pia
(played by Gokgorn Benjathikul, the only non-straight among
the main six characters). They round out the team with a straight
guy named Chai (played by Jessdaporn Pholdee) and a law student,
Wit (played by Ekachai Buranapanit), whose parents do not
know that their only son is gay. Bee then adds three effeminate
Buddhist monks, April, May, and June (played by Phromsit and
Suttipong Sittichumroenkhun and Anucha Chatkaew), as reserve
players. The point of the film is not just that gays can win
a national championship, but to focus on how gays fit into
Thai society, a theme that previously was a box office failure
in the Land of Smiles. [According to Thai Buddhist beliefs,
everyone is reincarnated, so gays and lesbians must have done
something very bad in a previous life to be so punished that
they do not fit into the norm. Some Thais accept gays, others
merely tolerate them, many look down upon them, a very few
are openly intolerant, but there is very little gasbashing
because of the view, intimated in the film, that those with
hostile attitudes may end up gay or lesbian in the next life.
Although two recent Thai prime ministers are rumored to have
been closeted gays, out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians have
been increasingly prominent in business and sports within
Thailand in recent years.] The Iron Ladies,
directed by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, depicts a range of attitudes
and behaviors within the team, from masculinity to femininity,
but quite early we hear the view that gays are especially
blessed because they incorporate personality characteristics
of both sexes, not merely the bland components of just one.
Perhaps the major surprise in the film is how straight people
of all ages in Thailand are enormously amused by the antics
of the most effeminate, a contagion that passes onto filmviewers
quite early in the movie. When sports officials are displeased
that "real men" are not on the team, Coach Bee retorts
that true sportsmanship involves fair play, and at one point
the audience repeatedly chants "Iron Ladies" to
ensure that the team will not be disqualified. Later, we view
how Wit’s parents try to remove him from the team after
he appears on television; nevertheless, he soon returns, determined
to live his own life. We see how transsexual Pia’s boyfriend
Chat (played by Pakorn Vipatawat) get engaged to a woman,
bringing anguish to Pia, though Chat later confesses his mistake
to Pia. After the team does poorly after team captain Chai
tells those who wear make-up not to do so, he relents and
the team rebounds, showing that stripping identity from effeminate
gays robs them of their will to do their best. The philosophical
way in which gays rationalize abuse is especially impressive,
notably when Coach Bee remarks, "Triumphing over yourself
is the greatest triumph of all." Frequently showing how
the team draws strength from Buddhist principles, The
Iron Ladies may well be the most profound film of
all time to popularize the virtues of Buddhism. The Political
Film Society has nominated The Iron Ladies as
best film exposé of the year and best film on human
rights.
MH
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