Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 11, 1993 TAG: 9312110097
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Beach Babes from Beyond" - what a great title! - is the first release\ from Paramount's Torchlight division. That label was created by the same\ people who've been so successful with the Full Moon horror movies and\ Moonlight children's films. If this one is any indication, their approach to\ soft-core video blends high production values and relatively unknown casts with\ formula plots.
The film takes its text from those wonderful, cheesy American\ International beach movies of the mid-'60s. The dumb jokes and generic rock\ soundtrack are the same. So are the semi-famous guest stars: Jacqueline\ Stallone, Don Swayze, Joey Travolta, Joe Estevez.
The plot is also a venerable retread. How will the kids save Uncle Bud's\ beach house from the evil rich people? There are even lots of filler shots of\ young crowds dancing the frug and the bugaloo on the sand. The presence of\ Burt Ward, Robin on the "Batman" TV series, somehow closes the circle.
The only differences are the bathing suits (much smaller) and the sexual\ content (much stronger, but on the soft-focus, romantic side). It's clear that\ producer Karen L. Spencer and director Ellen Cabot understand the genre and\ know what they're doing.
"Strike a Pose" does the same thing with a crime story. It's about Nick\ Carter (Robert Eastwick), a cop on suspension for a questionable shooting during a robbery, and his girlfriend Miranda Cross (Michelle Lamothe), a\ fashion photographer. His profession provides a plot, of sorts; hers provides\ an excuse for gobs of gratuitous nudity and hanky panky. Producer/director\ Dean Hamilton squeezes every penny out of an obviously low budget. I'm truly\ ashamed to admit how much I enjoyed this one.
Turning to the East, we find "Tokyo Decadence," which really isn't a\ guilty pleasure at all. Instead, it's a fascinating but grim look into the\ life of a prostitute. Ai (Miho Nikaido) caters to the sadistic sexual\ proclivities of upscale clients. She's superstitious, none-too-bright and,\ despite her profession, naive.
Ryu Murakami based the screenplay on his own novel and directed the film.\ It's slowly paced and Felliniesque at times, but throughout, he manages to tell\ a story about the most serious kinds of exploitation without ever being\ exploitative. With this kind of material, it's difficult to say what\ individual viewers will judge to be erotic. From my point of view, it didn't\ appear that Murakami was trying to excite or titillate his audience.> Instead, he presents this young woman without making value judgments. He\ neither condemns nor glorifies her. Once the shock value of her profession has\ worn off, she's really uninteresting and banal. Her clients are shown as\ wealthy, dangerous and deeply flawed. Comparisons to "In the Realm of the\ Senses" are inevitable, but while "Tokyo Decadence" isn't nearly as explicit,\ it isn't nearly as passionate either.
"Urotsukidoji II" continues the Grand Guignol mix of animated sex and\ violence that began in "Legend of the Overfiend." Like the first film, it tells\ a mad story that pinballs from one impossible event to another that's even more\ outlandish. The plot begins with a stomach-churning introduction in Nazi\ Germany, 1944, and moves to contemporary Japan. The rest involves humans,\ demons and supernatural creatures that are forever transforming themselves into\ something else, usually something revolting.
The quality of the animation isn't up to the highest standards - this is\ no "Akira" - and it's all so senseless that even the most disgusting\ perversions seem detached. Beyond the cultural differences and the unexplained\ supernatural aspects of the story, the plot is impossible to follow. That's\ because it's condensed from episodes of a much longer serial. That version of\ the story is scheduled to be released on tape early next year.
Next week: Christmas video gift ideas.
THE ESSENTIALS:
(All these guilty pleasures contain nudity and sexual material. The Japanese films also are unusually violent, though not in ways that Western audiences are used to.)
Beach Babes from Beyond: *** Paramount. 78 min. Rated R.
Strike a Pose: *** P.M. 86 min. Unrated and R-rated.
Tokyo Decadence: ** 1/2 Triboro. Time not listed, about 90 min. NC-17.
Urotsukidoji II: Central Park Media. 88 min. Unrated. (Not for children.)
New release this week: The Firm: ***
Stars Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter. Directed by Sidney Pollack. Paramount. 154 min. Rated R for strong language, sexual content, violence.
The film adaptation of John Grisham's best-seller is a slick Hitchcockian thriller of the "North by Northwest" school. A superb cast saves the story from some glaring structural problems. Fans of the novel may not approve of the changes that have been made - particularly at the end - but the filmmakers have been faithful to the spirit if not the letter of the source material.
by CNB