Katoey story | South China Morning Post

Director Yongyooth Thongkongtoon, film company Tai Entertainment and local distributors Golden Scene have high hopes to replicate this success when the film opens in Hong Kong on Thursday. A version dubbed in Cantonese by stars including Ekin Cheng and Sandra Ng will play in 19 cinemas, while the Thai version will screen in three.

The director, cast and two of the real volleyball players have assembled in Planet Hollywood, along with Ng and Cheng, to talk up the film - hence the stunned-goldfish gapes of the elderly Americans.

Certainly the scene is somewhat surreal and not a little confusing: a gender-bending potpourri of boys who are girls who like boys, boys who like boys, and straight actors who play boys who play sport as girls and fight over boys.

They are seated at a long table in front of Planet Hollywood's montage of movie stars. Hanging from the ceiling, a replica of a naked Sylvester Stallone stares wide-eyed. At the other end of the restaurant, the insect mandibles of the Predator gape open hungrily.

The voracious Chinese entertainment press is out in full force but seems interested mainly in the local luminaries.

As a result, the stars of the film sit there, bored and bemused, while the reporters direct question after question to Cheng and Ng about their voice-over work. Entirely, of course, in Cantonese. With no translation. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hong Kong.

Ng, who has put up some of her own money to bring the film to Hong Kong along with Golden Scene, is miffed at the line of questioning. 'One reporter wanted to know if one of the actors had a penis. I was shocked and embarrassed,' she says. 'I know that Hong Kong people are very curious about these ladyboys but they are not monsters. We should not discriminate against them. This movie delivers a very healthy message.'

Yongyooth, 33, takes the media circus in his stride. It's the movie-maker's first film - he normally makes television commercials - and he is still stunned by its success. 'Everyone told me it would be a flop,' he says. 'Movies about gays and sports have never succeeded in Thailand. But this one has struck a chord.'

The film is not without flaws, however. It gets bogged down in the middle, the volleyball scenes are unconvincing, and we all know how it's going to end. The Bangkok correspondent for US film bible Variety complained: 'It's a technically bad film and the characters are stereotypes.'

Thai society remains ambivalent about its large katoey population. The term itself encompasses transsexuals, transvestites and effeminate gays. They are tolerated, but only up to a point, and while gays and ladyboys hold powerful positions in the entertainment industry, their portrayal on screen has been largely limited to campy, shrieking figures of fun and derision in television soap operas.

In the past two years, the Thai Government has banned gays from teachers' colleges and told television producers to axe katoey characters. And while Bangkok hosted its first Gay Carnival last November, organisers are not confident they will be given a permit this year.

Yongyooth believes Satree Lex has been a hit because of its humorous approach. It is the first film to tackle the subject of gender confusion with sensitivity since the 1980 tragedy Phleng Sudthai (The Last Song), about a ladyboy cabaret singer who commits suicide.

'I think katoey are tolerated in Thailand, but they could be accepted a lot more,' he says. 'Tolerance and acceptance are not necessarily the same thing, and there is all sorts of subtle discrimination against gays. Many parents find it hard to come to terms with it if their sons are katoey, so it was good to be able to show how the parents of some of the volleyball players fully accept their children.

'The film was kind of a sleeper hit,' says Yongyooth. 'It's a lot of fun, and that just spread by word of mouth. It kept getting bigger and bigger.' He's had more offers to direct, but says for the time being he will go back to his old job. 'I've been working on this film for two years, so I've got a lot of other work piled up.'

He rates the story 'about 60 per cent' true to life. The scriptwriter, Wisuthichai Bunyakarnjana, spent months with the volleyball team members, although the final draft was penned by Yongyooth. It recounts how five katoey friends and their straight team captain, representing northern Lampang province, battle their way to victory at the 1996 national volleyball championships in Nakhon Sawan. Kongrit Singnukot, 34, is one of the original team members. His character is known in the film as Jung. He has a huge, beaming smile that rarely leaves his face. Today, he's dressed as a man. If he feels in the mood, sometimes he dresses as a woman, although not for his day job, as a teller in a Bangkok bank.

Teammate and Bangkok librarian Danupol Nuangchang - Mon in the film - has broad shoulders, an athletic frame, beautifully manicured nails, long hair and carefully applied make-up. 'I'm very happy with the film, I think it's good for us,' he says.

The pair still get together to play volleyball when the mood strikes them, although the original team have scattered far and wide from their native Lampang.

While the character of Mon is rather bitter and aggressive because of his unhappy family background, Danupol, 28, says this is exaggerated for effect. 'My parents broke up when I was one-and-a-half years old, but I wouldn't say my childhood was unhappy. But I never felt like other boys. I knew I was different.'

Kongrit is played in the film by Chaicharn Nimpoolsward, a first-time actor who comes close to stealing the show. Jung's parents accept him totally - his father jokes about his choice of foundation and eyeshadow and compliments him on his beauty.

Says Kongrit: 'It's true. My family has always been very accepting.'

Other cast members include heart-throb Jessadaporn Pholdee, Ekachai Buranapanit, Sahaphab Veeramekhin and Giorgio Maiocchi, all of whom are straight and most of whom look less than lovely in drag. Only Gokgorn, who plays the lovelorn Pia, is a real-life ladyboy. Says Yongyooth: 'I was a bit confused how to cast it at the start. I wasn't sure if I should use real katoey. Then I auditioned Sahaphab for the part of Mon. Everyone knows he's a straight guy, he is a singer and has played tough-guy roles on television, and when I saw how good his performance was I decided to go with mainly heterosexual men.

'If I had used gay men in every role, I think the atmosphere of the film would have been different, and I didn't want it to just turn into a katoey show. But the actors all spent time with katoeys, getting the body language and mannerisms right.'

Feminine body language is no problem for Gokgorn, who says she always knew she was a woman inside and, with the help of Thailand's top surgeons, certainly looks like one outside. Batting fat black lashes, she cocks her head coquettishly for the cameras, with a model's instinct for her best angle. 'Before this film, I think katoeys have been very misunderstood. I hope this opens people's eyes.'

Additional reporting by Vivienne Chow

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