The Adventure of Iron Pussy

The Adventure of Iron Pussy
Thai theatrical poster
Directed by	Apichatpong Weerasethakul Michael Shaowanasai
Written by	Apichatpong Weerasethakul Michael Shaowanasai
Starring	Michael Shaowanasai Krissada Terrence
Cinematography	Surachet Thongmee
Distributed by	Kick the Machine
Release date	November 1, 2003 (Japan)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Thailand
Language	Thai. English subtitles

The Adventure of Iron Pussy (Thai: หัวใจทรนง or Hua jai tor ra nong) is a 2003 Thai musical-action-comedy film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Michael Shaowanasai and starring Shaowanasai. The protagonist is a transvestite Thai secret agent whose alter ego is a gay male convenience clerk. A homage and parody of the 1970s Thai action films, musicals and melodramas, particularly those that starred Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat, the movie premiered at the 2003 Tokyo International Film Festival and has also played at the Berlin Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and other festivals. It is a cult film and has screened at several gay and lesbian film festivals as well.

The scene opens on a rural Thai coffee shop, run by an elderly man and his attractive teenage daughter. A gang of local toughs come in and start roughing up the customers and get abusive with the daughter. Suddenly, an elaborately coifed and tastefully dressed woman shows up and rescues the young woman and her father from further harm. This is Iron Pussy.

She disappears into the bushes and re-emerges as a slight, shaven-headed man, who then gets on the back of a motorcycle taxi and heads into Bangkok. Along the way, the motorcycle driver, Pew, relates his memories of the day he and Iron Pussy met – Pew, crazed from a drug overdose, had taken a young woman hostage. Iron Pussy came on the scene and rescued not the young woman, but Pew, and the two have been a couple ever since.

Iron Pussy arrives at her job. She is a clerk in a 7-Eleven in Bangkok. Unfailingly courteous and professional, she greets a man who she believes is just another customer, in the shop to pay his phone bill. When Iron Pussy scans the bill, a message comes up on the computer screen: "Hello Iron Pussy". It is a secret message from the prime minister. It seems there's a job for Iron Pussy.