Based on a true story about a team of volleyball players who were mostly gay, transexual or transvestites. The Iron Ladies begins by introducing us to Mon, who's missed out on selection for the provincial team because he's gay. His friend, the excitable transvestite Jung, talks him into trying out again after a new and possibly butch coach – Coach Bee is appointed and reopens the selections. When Mon and Jung make the team the straight members resign, all except for Chai who hangs in there. In order to fill the gaps in the team Mon and Jung call in their friends – a gay sergeant Nong, Pia – a transsexual cabaret star and Wit – a Thai Chinese who's just become engaged to hide his homosexuality from his parents. It's quite a team.
The fact that the director Yongyooth Thongkonthun regarded this as a message film, a pleafor tolerance, is only a slight dampener on the sheer exuberance of the production. The characters are very likeable – the irrepressible Jung is especially indelible with a cheeky in-your-face attitude, a nice performance from Chaichan Nimpoolsawasdi. It's Thongkonthun's first feature – he was a director of commercials before this home-grown success and the film certainly does have it's rough edges. And some of the performances are occasionally rather stilted, but when there is a 'scene for them' the performers rise to the occasion. There's not too much volleyball for those cinema-goers who don't like sport – when you see the real team in the end titles you understand why. The Iron Ladies is a crowd-pleaser – straight or gay – and if it's message becomes a little too laboured in the second half, it's not enough to kill the enjoyment.
