DEATH RIDE TO OSAKA
US, 1983, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thora Byrd, Mako, Ann Jillian.
Directed by Jonathan Kaplan.
Death Ride to Osaka (Girls of the White Orchid) is a pot-boiling telemovie about white slavery in Japan. The film has a contemporary '80s atmosphere. It shows girls ambitious to be singers and dancers being tricked by Japanese and American entrepreneurs to go to Tokyo where they are expected to be call-girls. If they refuse, they are sent to Osaka, for harsher treatment.
Jennifer Jason Lee is the hapless heroine. Ann Gillian offers a supporting role as a worldly-wise-dancer. The film was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, director of a number of interesting small-budget 1k films (White Line Fever, Mr. Billion) and telemovies.
The film takes itself very seriously - though it is reminiscent of old-fashioned melodramas.
1. Interesting melodrama? The point about American society, Japanese society, prostitution?
2. American and Japanese locations? Authentic atmosphere? The nightclubs? The musical score?
The title and its focus on the fate of the girls? The original title with its focus on the girls themselves?
4. The focus on Carol, her work in the hamburger joint in the United States, Don and his going into the Air Force, her sense of loneliness, opportunity for advancement, her wanting to be a singer, discussion with friends, interviews with the company, going to Japan, her hopes, singing in the nightclub, the madam and her control, the advances of the men, her reaction, the chiefs and their demands on her, financial arrangements and her poverty, moving to another hotel, the temptation of prostitution, the stories of the death rides, her friendship with Marilyn and discussions, the danger with the organisers, the son of the boss and his liking for her, saving her, Don's pursuit, her being saved, hurrying to the airport?
5. The American and Japanese businessmen and their luring of girls to Japan, smooth interviews, promises, contracts, the girls arriving, their treatment of them, the harshness in the clubs, acting as pimps for Japanese businessmen? The Mafia-style connections? Violence? Brutality? Deaths? The son of the chief and his sympathy for Carol, saving her, his death? The Japanese manners, traditions, styles, gangsterism? The death of the chief?
6. The opening with the girls dancing, the advances of the men, the girl who refused and her being sent to Osaka? Marilyn and her dancing? The other girls and their accepting of the situation?, Marilyn's reaction and her suicide?
7. Don and his earnestness, the Air Force, concern about Carol, leaving the force, searching her out, tracking her down, Japan, eventually finding her, the violent confrontation, rushing to the airport?
8. Themes of modern gangsterism, international crime, prostitution? The presentation of the girls and their being victimised? A stance for integrity? A dramatisation of good versus evil?
