"[Raquela singing indistinctly]" "This is my life story." "I swear..." "What should I say?" "Nothing but the truth?" "I..." "I..." "I don't know." "This is my movie, and this is my life story." "I swear I will tell truth, but nothing but the truth." "So help me God." "[Raquela singing indistinctly]" "I don't know about the life purpose of a ladyboy." "It's like... we are human beings." "We live a normal life." "We have to live just like everyone." "We have our own life purposes, just like every individual." "[Raquela singing indistinctly]" "We want to stay young forever, because it's like..." "stay young and beautiful, because we want guys to love us." "I do streetwalking when it's low season, when it's rainy days." "The hardest thing about streetwalking is that it's prone to accidents and another thing is the police chase you, and also some of those pricks that run around in cars and throw something like bottles or something." "It's a very dangerous job." "That is why I don't usually do that, even if I suffer from hunger." "I want to make my dream come true, walking in the streets of Paris." "But of course I know when I go to Europe" "I won't have anything." "That's why I have to work, work, work, work in order to reach my dreams." "Maybe when my money is enough to walk in Paris, maybe I would meet a rich guy who is handsome." "He's the one who would fulfill my dreams." "I won this in a prize, in a raffle draw." "I can feel it." "He looks very scary during nighttime, when we sleep." "I love my dog so much because he can take away all my problems." "When I feel so sad and lonely, he is always there." "I always hug him and he's so sweet to me." "He sleeps beside me during nighttime, and he is always playful to me." "And... yeah." "And his name is Tootsie." "I don't generalize all guys, but I think most of them... they are not serious when it comes to ladyboy relationships." "I always tell them to accept me for who I am, to spend his life with me." "I think I will be happy that time." "Very happy, of course." "I have five children." "There is a lesbian and a ladyboy, also." "I have a real girl and a real man, also." "So I have a complete family." "That's God's will, isn't it?" "I do really feel like a real woman, actually, but..." "Not 100% because of the thing that I have here." "My future plan after I graduate is to help my parents." "I want to graduate because I want to help my parents by becoming an engineer in a company someday which I will be proud of." "I can help the company, and they can help me." "After graduating perhaps..." "I'll be surrendering my hair to the company." "That's basically my reason." "I am submitting my hair fully because I really want to settle for a job which I am really looking for, and so, I will also help my parents after that." "I remember all the guys, but I can't count anymore." "Sometimes when the guy asks me, when the guy wanted to have a condom, that's as much as possible." "I don't like condoms." "It's one way that he could make us feel like a woman." "[Crash]" "This is what I say in my profile:" "Okay." "Well, my hobbies and interests:" "I love to collect things from friends." "I'm a femme fatale." "I'm a shemale, a chick with a dick, who is outrageous and outgoing and loves to party." "Sexually, I'm versatile and clean and functional." "Who I want to meet?" "Dalai Lama, Adolf Hitler, Jack the Ripper, serial killers, my soulmate, friends, assassins, superheroes and villains," "Marco Polo, ghost, engkanto, witch, ladies and gentlemen." "I met this guy on the Internet." "And his name is Michael, from Germany." "And he's going to show me Paris." "How are you?" "I'm okay." "What's your name?" "Earvin." "It's E-A-R-V-l-N." "So how old are you, Earvin?" "21." "# Then one foggy Christmas Eve #" "# Santa came to say #" "# Rudolph with your nose so bright #" "# Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" "Hey!" "#" "Yes." "Well, you know, I mean the maso stuff." "I mean..." "What are you doing every Tuesday?" "More pictures, but also a couple more girls." "Look, I've been there." "They're all over the place." "You just have to find the ones that aren't strung out on drugs." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I always say go for the ones that seem a little bit more educated because then we can do..." "they can do the webcam stuff, and there's a lot more potential revenue there." "Hold on, there might be a cop." "I'm not supposed to be talking on the phone." "Oh, no, it's just an ambulance." "Okay." "All right, Johnny, I'll talk to you." "Ciao." " Your name is Raquela?" " Yep." " Call me Johnny." " Nice to meet you." "Have a seat." "Can you hand me over the red shirt there?" " I smell like a pig." " Okay." "Hey." "Hey?" "Hey?" "Hello?" "I've been doing it for websites for more than four years." "You know, for me, I consider myself like a missionary." "Traveling around is nice." "It feels good." "Do you ever sleep with the models?" "Come on, I don't sleep with them." "I shoot them, and then that's finished." "I shoot the targets." "That's disgusting." "In a business like this, if you don't maintain your morals, you easily slip and can fuck up your whole life with it." "With these uniforms, on Wednesdays, you always use the sado-maso thing." "Do not fuck it up." "And on Friday, it's the nurse." "And all the other days you can play it however you want it." "If you have a lot of steady customers, don't try to give everything at once." "Stretch it, okay?" "Hook them up." "Don't give them everything right away." "You want them to come back, come back, log in again, log in again." "Because that's your cash." "I'm not a social welfare agency." "I'm not gonna..." "People can do what the hell they want." "But we're professionals." "We see it as a viable economic business." "And it could be an empire, I don't know." "I don't particularly want to have a huge empire." "I'm just happy having a business that's successful and lets me do what I want to do." "The definition of a ladyboy is they're definitely kind of living the impossible dream." "Sometimes it's sad." "Week after week, they go to the airports." "They've had these internet chats and relationships, and these guys say they're coming to visit or coming to marry them." "These ladyboys, they believe it." "The girls believe it." "They go to the airport, and they stand there, they wait, and no one shows up, and they do this week after week." "Because the dream is, one of these times, one of these wealthy Europeans or wealthy Americans is going to come off that airplane and sweep them off their feet and treat them like a woman that they feel like they are." "You know, I'm not going to tell them that's not going to happen." "Maybe it's happened." "That's kind of a sad part of it." "They're chasing ghosts." "We've got hundreds of people e-mailing us, saying it was down for..." "How long was it down?" "For seven hours." "For seven hours." "Over seven hours." "Okay." "Fucking retards, man." "You've got to call them." "I mean, seven hours is way too long." "You know what that means." "We're losing thousands of dollars." "If I can't count on you to call them and be on top of this shit, you know, what am I paying you for?" "I'm not going to micromanage." "I set this up." "It's foolproof, if people aren't fucking imbeciles." "Look at this shit." "Goddamn, people are sick." "A lot of our women, you know, a lot of our girls, since they've come on board, they've kind of turned their lives around." "It's because we work with people who have a certain integrity." "Great scouts." "Johnny K., you know, he's a great photographer, but he's a great human being." "And my people in Bangkok who kind of run the operation, you know, they're professional." "[Singing indistinctly]" "Yeah, sure." "She's going to be one of many." "She is one of many." "This is a huge industry." "She has the potential to do extremely well and really set herself up and set her family up if she chooses to stay the course and change her life." "And so far, she's sticking to the program, as far as I can tell from here." "And we talk a lot." "We talk a lot, and I'm impressed." "She's smart, seems clean." "She has a good sense of humor, which is important." "She knows how to be sexy." "These are all things that are attractive to people, and she knows how to..." "[Child yells]" "That kid's a fucking monster over there." "If that ball comes into my yard one more time, I don't know..." "You know, there's complexity." "It's not..." "People love to look at the world with right and wrong, black and white." "This is a classic case of, you know, shades of gray." "She was on the streets, and she's been able to kind of reassess, sit back and look at her life, and, fortunately, she wants to straighten out her life, so we're going to help her." "We are helping her." "One thing I always dreamed of is going to Europe to live a very luxurious life." "Going to Paris, shop those expensive clothes." "I'd like to walk around the streets, and people will stare at me." "They'll say, "Who the hell is that girl?" "She's very beautiful."" "That's what I always dream of." "I met her on the Internet." "She was curious about Asian ladyboys, but she's much more comfortable with Filipino ladyboys because it's in her roots." "Well, we became friends, and we had a chit-chat." "And I told her I wanted to go to Paris and it's hard to go to Paris." "That's why she wanted to help me to get a visa to go to Iceland, so I could easily go to Paris once I go to Iceland." "Well, she wants me to work in a fish factory." "Once I come back here, I'm different." "This is me." "I'm cleansed with all my past life." "[Singing indistinctly]" "You could make halo-halo there, you know." "I really want to meet those Eskimos there." "Start a small business." "I tell you." "I really like Eskimos." "Eskimos." "They want to..." "I want them to hump me." "Your first time here, or...?" "Yes, it's my first time." "Can I have you fill out this form?" "You still have to fill out this form." "The HIV test is a blood test, so we will get a blood sample from you." "Ouch." "Okay, now release your hand." "Hold on, Johnny." "No, hold on." "I'm just going to step out." "Are you good?" " Are you on top of that?" " Yeah." "Okay, Johnny." "Um..." "Right." "Okay." "So, assuming she..." "Okay, I will." "I'll..." "No, the galleries are great." "The galleries are great, you know, and she's doing great webcam stuff." "So I'm going to send her her pay for the last two weeks, and then I'm also going to wire about $1,200, and I want you to buy her a ticket." "Right." "No, assuming she passes the..." "Assuming she passes the HIV test, and that contact she has in Iceland is actually going to deal with all the paperwork," "I'm going to buy her the ticket." "No." "No, no, no, no." "Don't tell her." "This is going to be a little treat, a little surprise." "Tell her..." "No, if she passes the test, then you can say that I'm buying her a ticket." "No strings attached." "And then if..." "You know, if it works out and she manages to actually get there, maybe I'll fly over to Europe and take her to Amsterdam or Paris." "No, Paris, probably." "Right, Paris, she's always talking about." "I don't know much about AIDS, but for the things I do, being so careless, being so promiscuous," "I think I'm getting it." "And how I wish I wouldn't get it." "But I always rationalize not having protection with so many guys." "I can't help it, but I love being careless." "Yeah, I'm really afraid to tell my parents." "I don't want to tell them anything about it." "I'm really, really scared." "If I'm positive, they might kick me out at home." "It will be so..." "My life would be so miserable." "[Gasps]" "The result is non-reactive." "I was really, really happy." "I was jumping up." "Negative." "You're negative." "This is like I'm escaping death." "This is a nice result." "I don't even know what to call it, but the phenomenon of the ladyboy reminds me a little bit of that insect, the cicada, which hibernates for 17 years underground and then comes up one season," "and for, like, two weeks it makes this unbelievable fucking racket, right?" "And it mates, and it does its thing, and it basks in the sun, and then boom, dead." "And that's kind of the way I think about ladyboys is that they..." "You know, they have probably 17 years of being in the dark and hiding their identity, and then they come out, and they want to look the best they can, and they want to have as much sex as they can," "and they want to, you know, really live." "The underlying belief is that the more men you sleep with, the more of a woman you become." "It's what enables them to breathe, to thrive, right?" "But it's also the thing that will do you in." "You know, it's like..." "The more you become a lady, the more you use these hormones, the more men you sleep with, you know, the more the chances are you're going to die at a young age." "Behave there." "Always pray there because I know God is the way." "Don't forget to pray every day." "We'll miss you." "Good-bye." " Happy trip." " Okay, good-bye." "No, I don't have culture shock." "The moment I stepped out of the airplane, it was very strange because I wasn't asking for some assistance, and there was this guy who was assisting me." "When I went outside, it was very cold." "I thought it was just an air-conditioner." "It was like a freezer." "How far is New York from here?" "Five hours?" "I thought it was longer." "We could meet in Iceland, but I'd rather meet you in Paris." "We could make a love hideaway." "Maybe we could get along with each other." "Of course you have to pay the ticket for me." "Oh, it's good that you called me." "I'll just e-mail you, okay?" "Good-bye." "See you." "Okay." "All right." "Valerie?" "Raquela?" "Yes." "How are you?" "I'm okay." "So how do you like Iceland?" "It's something new." "It's cold." "It's cold, though." " It's different from the Philippines." " I know." " Do you want to go outside?" " Yeah." " I want to smoke." " Okay." " Let's go outside." " Let's smoke." "You're going to love it here." " Really?" " Yeah." "You are." "Trust me." "We are going to rock this country." "It's freezing." "Shake that ass!" "So you bought something on the airplane?" " No." " You didn't buy a lot?" "It's too expensive." " It's too expensive?" " Yeah, for me." "I know everything is expensive here, but you will get used to it." " Yeah?" " Yes, you will." "It's much more different in the Philippines." "It's cheaper." "Oh, honey." "You know what?" "If you come to a new country, everything is new." "This is Keflavík." "Keflavík?" " Where's Reykjavík?" " Reykjavík is..." "We have to drive for 25-30 minutes, then comes Reykjavík." "It's not so far away." "Hi." "Are you Earvin?" "Yeah." "Actually, it's Raquela." " Raquela." " Okay." "You're on a very, very tight visa." "Okay?" "Yes." "You have to behave, wake up early, and no hanky-panky." "Okay." " Do you understand?" " Yes, I understand." "Okay, I mean what I'm talking about." " Did Valerie pick you up?" " Yeah." "Ah, no." "It was a guy." "But we met in the airport." "Valerie?" "So you've seen her?" "Yeah, we met." "She's going to pick you up tomorrow, 7:00." "Do you know how to clean?" "Yes." "Do you know how to clean good?" "Yeah, why?" "Okay." "Do you want an extra job... cleaning?" "For a little extra money?" "Okay." "Okay." "Okay." "So, I will arrange that." "You'll see a little bit of brown people there, too." " Filipinos?" " Yeah." " Asian?" " Yeah." "And these are your shoes." "Really nice shoes." "Oh, my God, this is so unfashionable." "Okay." "Before we go in, we need this." "Why?" "We have to put lipstick on." "There are cute guys there." " Yeah." " Okay." "We have to flirt, even if we smell like fish?" "There's a picture of myself..." "this one... when I was 12 years old." "Wow, you look so beautiful." "And this is the country we live in." "Is this your national costume?" "This is..." "We were meeting." "It was a meeting." "Please come here." "I want to give you this because it's rather cold." "Thanks." "It's very, very cold outside." "This is my..." "This is my daughter." "She is her mother." "Their mother." "Is this a twin?" "Twins?" "No, no." "This is what I bought for myself from the extra pocket money I got." "This is a learning-Italian course book." "Too bad I don't have any CD players." "I need to learn some Italian language because someday, maybe, I'll go to Italy." "Next on my list are French, Portuguese, and also Dutch." "I want to learn a lot of European languages." "I went to the flea market just to do some shopping." "I've seen some fashionable items." "I picked up a lot of clothes that make me feel in character." "This one, it looks like a Madonna corset, '80s-looking, like:" "# Papa, don't preach #" "# I'm in love #" "Like that." "Where are we going?" "These are called bling-bling, honey." "Look at this wedding ring." "Oh, my God, I want that one." "That in the middle." "We can flirt, and we can joke around, but hell, no, we ain't gonna do no action to some guy." " Oh, shit." " No, no, no." "Of course, they're using my body, of course." "Honey, there are many guys here." "Don't let them use you." "It's not worth it." "You're more worth it than God made you." "Don't let some guy fuck you around." "Or hurt your feelings, you know what I mean?" "It's okay." "Where are all the handsome guys around here?" "Some of them are cute, some of them are not." "Well, the good thing is it doesn't smell like shit." "Oh, no, it doesn't smell like shit." "Or a dead rat." "Oh, gosh!" "Disgusting!" "It will be expired next week." "It's E-A-R-V-l-N." "Earvin, that's how it reads." ""Earvin," but it's "Ervin."" "I would like to make an extension." "Europe is my dream place, but I think I better find another option." "I am sad about it." "I'm tough about it and just accepting the fact that I am leaving on Wednesday." "Despite the very cold weather, I learned to live a simple life, rather than living a life in the Philippines that's full of... living a life of party." "But here, I prefer to stay at home." "I'm so sad I was born on the other side of the planet." "Valerie is luckier." "She was born here." "She has all the opportunities." "I just end up like a shit." "I get rotten when I get old." "I'm meeting Michael next week." "Finally I'm able to see Paris for the first time." "Oh, gosh." "I don't want people to think that I'm a gold digger." "Because I'm not." "I never dig gold from anyone." "I just want to have a better life." "I just need a passage for a better life." "I'm trying to clean up." "I want to start a new life here in Europe." "I do at least 50 every morning." "All day, baby." "This is fun." "Watch." "Shhh." "[Laughing]" "[Church bells ring in the distance]" "They're calling us to church." "Okay." "Well, look." "I mean..." "But they're for real, right?" "They're real ladyboys?" "[Knocks]" "You almost ready?" "I'm almost done, okay?" "We're gonna have a good time." "No, I can dig that." "Well, they've got the nice round asses." "You look like you're going to a funeral." "Can you not...?" "Don't smoke in here." "Don't smoke inside." "[Knocks]" "No, she flew in yesterday." "It's her first time in Paris." "It's pretty fucking amazing." "Her eyes are wide open." "No, I bought her a ticket." "Because I felt like it." "If I were Jewish, I would call it a mitzvah." "You know, like a good deed." "Are you sure?" "Whoa." "Look at that." "A duck just..." "You're having fun." "Oh, you're having fun." "I like that." "All right." "You're having a lot of fun." "That's what it's all about." "Okay." "Let's walk over." "Yeah." "This is fun." "This is fun, right?" "Oh, my God, fucking Charlie Chaplin over here." "You always see local teenagers dropping peanuts on each other's heads, but really they just want to hump, you know." "Testosterone and hormones going crazy." "There's a little police officer checking us out." "He's jealous because we're having fun." "It's not right." "Like what?" "I mean, you know, it's like a bunch..." "It's like anything." "It's like Disney World, you know?" "Like anything else." "Whatever was authentic about it is gone." "Look, here comes a fucking great tour bus." "They'll pull up, all these fat people will get off." "Just watch." "See?" "Well, obviously it's rich in culture." "It's fucking Paris." "The Louvre is right there, the Mona Lisa." "You see that big, long building?" " That's right along the river." " Oh, really?" "Let's go there." " We can go there, except I'm..." " Can we take a picture?" "No, you can't..." "Well, you can take some pictures, but walking through that museum, it'll take us six hours to approach the Mona Lisa, and when you get there, it's like this big, it's like a fucking postcard." "Yeah, I know." "Everyone comes to protest at the same time, and then they just talk, talk, talk at each other, and no one hears anything because it gets all jumbled." "That's exactly the problem with our modern age." "And of course the French, because the French have no fucking idea what's going on." "The French people live to protest, but the question is, do they ever work?" "That's why their economy is going in the shitter, which is good for industrious people like us." "These fucking kids everywhere, I'm telling you." "There are a lot of problems with the U.S., but there's no way in hell there'd be these skateboarders all over the place in a public place like this." "I don't know." "They're never as..." "These things are never as impressive in real life as they are in your imagination, I think." " No, it's beautiful." " Well, I'm glad you like it." "I'm going to take pictures of it, and my friends are going to get jealous." "Well, I'm glad I was able to give you the opportunity to..." "Yeah, this is once in a lifetime." "Yeah?" "Is that the way you feel?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "You talk for a while." "I feel like all I ever do is talk, talk." "What are your impressions?" "Impressions about what?" "The city, about Paris." "Well, it's beautiful." "I have never seen this place before in all my life." "And?" "I'm sorry, can you not smoke right now?" "Sorry." "Thanks." "All right." "Who brought you to Paris?" "You." "I know it's you." "Who?" "I know it's you." "And?" "Should I thank you for that?" "What do you mean, "Should you thank"...?" "Well, what do you think?" "Do you think you should thank me for it?" "Okay, thank you." "Come on, that doesn't sound particularly grateful to me." "Okay, I'm so grateful that I'm here." "I'm so happy." "It's a dream of mine." "Look at your posture." "What?" "It doesn't strike me as the most grateful posture." "I mean, it's all right." "I don't want to fucking guilt-trip you or anything," "I just, you know, obviously..." "You know, I don't know." "I don't know." "I almost get this sense that you're not wanting to... you'd rather almost be here alone by yourself." "It's like you don't like to see me, like you're not interested in me." "Look at us." "I've got my arms around you, I care about you," "I brought you here." " Of course I fucking want you here." " Whatever." " Huh?" " Whatever." ""Whatever." That's the worst fucking expression I ever..." "I mean, of all the things people can say," ""whatever" really fucking puts me over the edge." "Okay." "Do you know why?" "It doesn't mean anything." "He's such an asshole." "Well, I don't think he deserves me much." "I'll throw him out in the garbage." "He doesn't deserve my time." "I can enjoy it alone." "I feel so much free." "I'm going to Amsterdam because I'm going to visit some friends." "She wants to do her own thing, and that's fine." "I have absolutely no problem with that." "I gave her something." "Honestly, I'm happy to end this chapter." "Where's this fucking taxi?" "You have to look at where this person comes from." "These people grew up in the street, you know, so anything..." "Not these people." "These people grew up with a fucking silver spoon in their mouth." "Look at that, the way they..." "I like the scarf, too." "Check this guy out." "Like, I mean, they all must go to, like, scarf training school, because I could never fucking wrap it and then have it droop like that." "I tried." "I fucking embarrassed myself." "That guy's a slick bastard with his white fucking scarf." "Here we go." "Halle-fucking-lujah." "Thank you." "Hey." "She's one of thousands." "She's not special or unique." "Nobody's particularly special or unique." "Everyone's just doing their thing and finding their destiny, or whatever you want to call it." "We're doing very well." "She was great." "People loved her." "We made a lot of money." "She got to go to Paris." "I mean..." "I've been thinking about where to go next, what to do next, and I feel..." "I feel Brazil is calling." "I've been talking to a..." "I mean, there's a big ladyboy community down there." "I've been talking to this one, Paula, and the asses are just unbelievable." "And there's samba and dancing." "There's a lot of positive energy." "So I feel like I might go down there and see what there is to see." "I'm at a point where I can do that." "I can just decide, boom, go to JFK, hop on an airplane, and it might be samba time." "This is the only childhood story that I can remember." "The amazing truth about Queen Raquela is that she was switched at birth by an evil king's mistress and sent to a country far, far away and raised by poor farmers." "And as a child only knows, she knew that something was missing." "Full of thoughts of revenge, she would prepare to invade her kingdom to get her crown back." "And I always pretend myself to be Queen Raquela, trying to remember her royalty and her real parents."