Summaries

Synopsis

Twenty-two-year-old Or has been taking money from his parents under false pretenses for years to finance sex reassignment surgery in Bangkok. He fabricates an acceptance letter from Oxford in order to explain his going abroad. Finally, the big day comes, and he flies to Thailand, where he checks into a hotel where others undergoing the same surgery are staying.

We see him wake up post-op, his - now her - entire body bandaged. She slowly recovers, and eventually goes out and has a makeover: hair, face, nails. She performs karaoke in her new look, and tells onlookers that she didn't always look this way. She meets Kylie, an older woman from Australia who's post-op, who tells Or that she has to find a way to tell her parents what she's done. Or is finally healed enough to go home, and arranges for her brother to meet her at the airport.

Her brother, who of course doesn't recognize her, is in shock. He takes Or to a rented room where she stays while figuring out her next steps. She persuades her brother to bring his mother to a park where she'll meet her "new daughter". The brother has prepped the mother, who hugs Or and tells her that she'll never give up on her and always love her.

Or's father is a different story; as Or predicted, he's less accepting. Another park meeting is arranged, where at first the father hides behind some bushes while Or greets her mother. Finally, the moment comes to "introduce" Or to her father, who indeed, while telling Or to come home, admits, "I want my son back."

In between we see Or volunteering with paramedics and showing a picture of her former (male) self to a co-worker, who compliments her and hugs her. Or also goes out on a date with a man, and shares a long, romantic kiss with him.

The last scene shows Or back home, opening up packages of study equipment for university studies (real this time) in physics, and happily playing with her new microscope.