A moving fight for fulfillment

A singular movie if ever there was one, Ekachai Uekrongtham’s “Beautiful Boxer” is a deeply affecting odyssey that traces the life of the son of itinerant farmworkers.

The film, screening as part of the UCLA Film Archive’s Bangkok: Cinema City series (see article on opposite page), is based on the true story of a fighter who competes in full makeup and uses his winnings to pay for a sex change operation.

Early in the film the protagonist, a little boy, is taking in the sights of a traveling carnival. Coming upon a kickboxing match, he is as repelled by its violence as he is quickly fascinated by a nearby opera performance. He is so captivated by its beautiful young star, in her exquisite and elaborate costume, that he heads backstage to peek into her dressing room. When her lipstick rolls off her dressing table the little boy reaches out to grab it. The die is cast for his destiny in this deftly staged sequence -- but to end up looking like the opera singer, he will eventually first enter that boxing ring.

Once again at a carnival, the boy, now in his teens, is taunted into competing in a kickboxing match -- and, much to his astonishment, wins. He discovers an instinctive skill that will be honed at a training camp, where he swiftly excels.

All this is preliminary to the heart of the matter, which is how the young fighter, Nong Toom (a thoroughly persuasive Asanee Suwan), struggles with his gender identity. He is delicately handsome, with a shy, demure personality but a strong, well-muscled body, an awesome kickboxing technique and a ruthless winner’s instincts in the ring. Yet all the while he experiences the transsexual’s unending anguish at feeling that he is a woman trapped in a man’s body -- and at the same time is becoming a celebrity, a national hero, for his exploits in the ring.

Frau on a mission

Another odyssey -- the story of a 30-year-old shopping mall cleaning woman yearning for love -- is told in a wistful, gently amusing way in Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand’s “When the Right One Comes Along,” part of the Goethe Institut’s 6th Annual Blockbuster Series.

While mopping floors on the night shift, Isolde Fischer’s Paula takes notice of Mustafa (Can Sengul), a Turkish security guard, and swiftly decides the short, stocky man is her true love.

Embarking on a campaign to capture his interest is no small challenge, but Paula, in her awkward but sweet way, persists in making his acquaintance only to learn that Mustafa’s father has ordered him back to Turkey.

Casting all caution aside, Paula decides to follow her heart and search for him, even though she knows only that he’s somewhere in the vicinity of Adana, Turkey’s fourth-largest city with about a million inhabitants. That Paulus and Hillebrand regard Paula and her quest with the utmost delicacy and compassion results in a film that is sometimes funny but never at Paula’s expense, sometimes wrenching but always touching and engaging.

Italian impressions

The American Cinematheque launches Cinema Italian Style: New Films From Italy, a two-week series, tonight at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with Italy on Film: La Bella Vita, a special program of film clips and a panel discussion that will include Michael York, writer-director Edoardo Ponti and Michael Radford, director of the Oscar-nominated “Il Postino.”

The film series will screen at the Egyptian, starting Friday with Part I of Marco Tullio Giordana’s six-hour made-for-TV epic “Best of Youth.”

Screening Sunday is Cristina Comencini’s “The Best Day of My Life,” in which Comencini deftly manages to turn soap opera back on itself. The title refers to the upcoming First Communion of the granddaughter of an elegant widow (a durably beautiful Virna Lisi), who lives alone with her memories in a fine old estate on the outskirts of Rome. As the widow plans a family celebration for her granddaughter’s big day, the family itself is in considerable disarray. One daughter, long widowed, is driving her son away because of her possessiveness. Another daughter is mired in marital discord and infidelity. Meanwhile, the widow’s son is a closet homosexual in danger of losing his lover.

Comencini manages to delve deeply into the lives of these people with sufficient wit, insight and economy that “The Best Day of My Life” is surprisingly substantial and entertaining. What is best about Comencini’s sophisticated sensibility is that she allows her people to arrive at moments of communication with each other but resists tying up their problems neatly.

*

Screenings

Bangkok: Cinema City

See info, opposite page

Goethe Institut

6th Annual Blockbuster Series

* “When the Right One Comes Along,” Tuesday, 7 p.m., Goethe Institut Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100. (323) 525-3388.

American Cinematheque

Cinema Italian Style:

New Films From Italy

* Film: La Bella Vita program, tonight, 8 p.m., Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 247-3600.

* “Best of Youth,” Friday, 8 p.m., and “The Best Day of My Life,” Sunday, 4 p.m., Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

(323) 466-FILM, www.americancinematheque.com