American girls with
dreams of stardom in their eyes are lured to a Tokyo nightclub with the promise
of a job opportunity. When they get
there, they are dismayed to learn that they have actually been hired as what
are essentially glorified prostitutes.
One such girl is Jennifer Jason-Leigh, a mousy, naïve waitress who’s an
aspiring singer that eagerly signs up to be the club’s main attraction. Once she figures out what’s going on, she
tries to escape before the Yakuza who runs the club have
her killed.
Jennifer Jason-Leigh
gives a good performance as the likeable and shy heroine. Ann Jillian (the same year as her saucy turn
in Mr. Mom) is equally fine as the most experienced girl at the club who does
a sultry dance number. Speaking of Mr.
Mom, Carolyn Seymour also shows up as the icy female head of the operation. Mako and Soon-Tek Oh are also around to lend
their considerable talents.
Director Jonathan
Kaplan has pretty much made a career out of telling stories about women being
assaulted and/or imprisoned as he also did The Accused, Brokedown Palace, and
Reform School Girl. This was originally
a TV movie (you can tell because Ann Jillian gets “Guest Star” billing), but I
saw the spicy international version that has a little bit of skin. These moments are really brief though as most
of the nudity comes from stripteases and quick shots of women getting dressed. Overall, the nudity isn’t plentiful enough to
make this a worthwhile effort, although it does make it more memorable than
your average Movie of the Week drama.
AKA: Girls of the White Orchid. AKA:
Operation Osaka.
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