New Documentary – Lumpinee

I came across this a few days ago and it looks really interesting. Every time there’s a new documentary out about Muay Thai in Thailand I become the happiest man on the planet. It’s just hard to come by some quality footage like this.

From the look of it, this doco is going to give a raw and uncensored look into what it’s like to be a young Thai boy growing up in a rural Muay Thai camp in Thailand.
In Thailand kids are having professional fights, throwing elbows and knees to the head while most of us back home only have our first fight in our late teens and start using elbows in our mid twenties. These Thai kids don’t even wear mouth gaurds until they enter the big stadiums, even then at the big stadiums after round 2 your allowed to take them out. Crazy Thai’s!

It’s going to be interesting to see what most of us tourist Nak Muay’s miss while training in Thailand. These kids are poor and fight month to month just to live. Sometimes ending up with nothing in the end.

It’s not out yet bit will be shown at a film festival in Amsterdam this year before it’s release.

Here’s the synopsis

Destiny brings a group of hopeless kids into Thai boxing world of violence. It may look like an unjust deed in some peopleʼs eyes. But Thai boxing is a two-sided coin in Thai society. For these kids, it could mean an opportunity to flip their lifeʼs crisis into a chance. For them, itʼs all about passion, determination, and faith.

The story takes place at a boxing camp in a small community in southern Thailand. Destiny leads kids of varied backgrounds and purposes to travel to the boxing camp.
Some join the camp because they love boxing. Some are homeless drifters; impoverished, drug addicted, or charged with filching. Some simply need a shelter, kids who view Thai boxing as lifeʼs last resort. They live together in this boxing camp that turns into a small society filled with both friendship and conflict – all centering and leaning on Thai boxing and Uncle Sak, the campʼs owner. The boxing camp thus resembles a juvenile rehab home or a mental rehab center. Its strict rules of behavior and rigid boxing training serve as potent medicines in rectifying the kidsʼ mind and body, and Uncle Sakʼs loving kindness towards the kids inspires them to look up to him as an adopted father. Uncle Sak, in turn, aims to breed the supreme Thai boxing from the South, so that one day his boxers could make their way up the rank and have the chance to fight against Bangkok giant campsʼ boxers. His ultimate dream: Lumpinee Stadium Thai Boxing Championship Belts.
A budding boxing life not only gives the kids a new life but also grants them the vision of hope. They open up their mind, revealing their dream, on a journey that the only thing available for them to hold on to is determination and faith. They journey ahead in a quest for victory and social acceptance, perhaps attainable in the short moment when the winnerʼs hand is help up high on the ring, the only lifeʼs greatest merit they want to seize.

And a statement from the director

Today, a number of Thai boxers join the industry and begin their fight on the ring at a very young age. The fact has become a subject of controversy in Thai society questioning propriety, human-rights violation, the obvious violence, and seemingly abusive treatments by adults in boxing industry. At the same time, the influence of gambling has also played a bigger role in pressuring and determining the outcome of a fight, making people focus less on the sports itself.
The kids represent a large number of Thai youngsters living in rural areas in various parts of Thailand where urban pop culture hasnʼt yet completely dominated their life. This film shows how they live and why Thai boxing is deeply ingrained in their innocent soul.
The story of these kidsʼ boxing-life journey inspired this documentary project, with the boxing camp serving as a model displaying various angles of problems. It is a story that begins from the small lives of impoverished kids, and evolves to reveal its in-depth importance that holds great impact on society and Thai boxing industry.

Born in Australia, training in martial arts since the age of 9. My first trip to Thailand was back in 2007. Since then i have made numerous visits back to the "land of smiles" to feed my addiction of Muay Thai. During the month of November in 2010 i had to decide between working a 9 to 5 job back home for the rest of my life, or sell all my worldly possessions and move to Thailand to live and train for the next few years. Thankfully i chose the latter. I now spend my time training Muay Thai, meeting new and interesting circles of people, sipping coconuts under palm trees on the beach and measuring the cost of everything on how much Pad Thai i could buy with that money.

Mike (Admin)

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