Operation Osaka

Oriental bad guys entice a sweet, naive young American girl named Carol (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Tokyo, ostensibly to further her singing career. But the bad guys run a prostitution ring out of a Tokyo club called the White Orchid. And Carol's real job is that of a prostitute. Carol resists, and her boyfriend leaves the U.S. to rescue her. Based on a real life event, this made-for-TV film is sub-par.

For one thing, Leigh is miscast. She's too young and too innocent looking. Another problem is that beyond the basic premise, there just isn't that much to the story. Pacing is slow. Characters spend a lot of time walking around on the streets. Ancillary singers sing and perform in the club. All of which add up to ... filler.

The film has a cheap, made-for-TV look and feel. Music is nondescript. Acting is stilted. The film's ending is predictable and visually unimaginative. "Girls Of The White Orchid" is rather like an inferior imitation of an extended episode of Hawaii Five-O. I kept waiting for Steve McGarrett to show up to tell his partner: "book'em, Danno".

Viewed this film under the title, "Death Ride to Osaka" which is the same film as "Girls of the White Orchid" which deals with the Japanese Mafia who run an establishment that deals with young girls from America who have some talent like singing and dancing and are willing to selling their bodies for entertainment. However, these young girls are hired by an agency in the Los Angeles who advertise for young talented gals and they have no idea what they are really being hired for. Jennifer Jason Leigh, (Carol Heath) is one of these young girls who falls into this trap and finds herself trapped in Japan and at the mercy of dirty old men and Mafia pimps. This story goes on and on and begins to get very boring with girls trying to escape and some being sent to OSAKA.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, fresh off her almost-star-making performance in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", plays a Los Angeles waitress and would-be singer who thinks she's hit upon a great career move: signing with a Japanese company to work at a nightclub in Tokyo. She quickly learns the club White Orchid is owned by the Yakuza, who take her passport and sell her into prostitution. Well, that's definitely a change from schlepping burgers on Hollywood Boulevard! Promising director Jonathan Kaplan helmed this teleplay by Carole Raschella and Michael Raschella, though the script shows the sweat stains of many hands. It amusingly tries to have things both ways: be a finger-wagging diatribe on the pitfalls of being too independent while also reveling in the seamier aspects of its scenario. The DVD release not only changed the title to something more salacious, but also added heretofore unseen nude shots. I'm sure everyone involved was just so proud... * from ****

Made-for-TV films are an interesting time capsule which we just don't have anymore due to streaming services and the death of traditional television. From as far back as the 60's through the early 90's, made-for-TV movies were a big deal - event viewings that people made sure they had couch time set aside for. Unlike today's television environment, if you missed it, you may never have the chance to see them again. Most made-for-TV films were shown twice on network television, and in the case of this film, only once. These needed to be interesting stories that had to rely on tight storytelling without leaning on sex, violence, and language that you could get away with in theaters and they had to be done on a budget of what I'd estimate was about a million bucks or so.

Some people have a certain stigma around films made for TV, as if they're inherently of a lower quality or went straight to TV because they weren't good enough for the big screen, which is isn't exactly true. These aren't like direct to video DVD releases. Big time directors like Steven Spielberg and Edward Zwick have worked on productions made for TV with Duel (1971) and Special Bulletin (1983). Made-for-TV films like The Night Stalker and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark were amazing horror films, the latter even being remade in 2010 backed by Guillermo Del Toro.

Death Ride to Osaka, originally released on TV as Girls of the White Orchid, originally aired in late November, 1983 and was produced by NBC's Hill/Mandelker Films, which produced 10 different NBC made-for-TV films between 1981-1984, many focusing on specific audiences and this one was clearly geared towards the female crowd. It was released on a Monday night opposing Monday Night Football, so if you weren't interested in Dan Marino shellacking the Bengals, this was your counter-programming that evening. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh in her last made-for-TV role. I was surprised that she was in this, considering she had a big role in the amazing comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High just a year before this released, but it was common back then to bounce between features and other made-for-TV films before making the jump to theatrical features. She had been in The Killing of Randy Webster (1981) and The First Time (1982) and continued to make some ABC After School Specials and telefilms throughout her career. Interestingly, the events of the film are based on the true story of Tom Allard's girlfriend. Allard was an actor with bit parts in some films and played Shung in the 1991 TV show Land of the Lost and shows up as a newspaper salesman here.

Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the ultra-naive Carol Heath, a waitress in Los Angeles who aspires to be a singer and answers a talent ad in the paper that advertised opportunities in the Orient. Unfortunately, when she gets there, she realizes that the gig at the White Orchid club isn't exactly what she thought it would be. Sure, she's singing - and the film features some songs actually sung by Jennifer Jason Leigh, but she's also expected to cozy up with the local Japanese men, many of whom are Yakuza, with the expectation of sharing more than just a sweet, sweet voice. When girls brought to the White Orchid don't play ball, they're sent to the lower end clubs in Osaka, where dreams...and girls...die, hence the alternate title of the film. Also in the mix is Don, Carol's boyfriend who's in the Navy. When he's discharged, he comes looking for her and finds some trouble for himself overseas.

The film is a pretty grounded look at the nature of prostitution trafficking in the early 80's. Watching this, it's easy to understand how young hopefuls would get caught up in this kind of scheme. It's scary to think that thousands of young girls probably answered ads just like the one in this film, only to find themselves stuck in a foreign land with no way out. There are a few other threads in the film - one featuring the other girls at the club - including a few that end tragically - and one featuring the Yakuza boss's son which didn't feel realistic, considering what he'd probably done up that point. The film stays on a pretty realistic course until the end, where it unfortunately steers into the realm of the preposterous and felt rushed - especially the climax, which features an elderly Yakuza boss using Kung fu with the speed of a man stuck in quick sand, and of course ending on a happy note for those slipping off to bed at 11pm on a work night. Looking at the limitations of films like this, there are short bursts of violence that are pretty tame and there was no foul language, which was par for the course on cable TV. I was, however, surprised that there was a bit of nudity in the film - at least four different scenes, including one featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh and one that kind of mirrors a naked, sleazy Flashdance style scene in an ugly Osaka bar that feels like it was filmed for a different film. For a made-for-TV film, I was not expecting naked women. Now, I was two when this film came out, so I can only imagine that the version shown on NBC did not show the nudity and that it was filmed in conjunction with either a European release or under the assumption that it would be on video store shelves within a few years.

Death Ride to Osaka is a decent enough film and an interesting cautionary tale that I'm sure was effective for couch surfers in 1983. As a stand alone experience now, it's tough to recommend to anyone outside of Jennifer Jason Leigh completionists, because she's the best thing about the film - she acts her ass off here and shows why she'd be the star that she was. While the film works as a decent melodrama, it's chock full of cheap tropes and packed with what I've heard referred to as 'yellow fear', and in an age where we've had enough fear mongering over what idiots have dubbed the "China Virus", this can be a tough pill to swallow. Still, for something that was probably expected to be seen only once, there is something to be said for the craft used to make the film. Jonathan Kaplan was an extremely competent director. The film is interestingly lit, well shot, and also features some great music.

This was released as part of Fun City Editions Primetime Panic set, alongside two other made-for-TV films Freedom (1981) and Dreams Don't Die (1982). The picture looks good although there's some noticeable grain. The disc contains some interviews, including one with the director Jonathan Kaplan, as well as a commentary by the incredibly informed film programmer Lars Nilsen.

I bought this DVD not expecting a whole lot given its price tag of $6.99, and it was neither better nor worse than I expected. Only bought it because Jennifer Jason Leigh, who stars, is one of my favorite actresses. BTW, you might be confused looking at the DVD's front cover (which IMDb reproduces), because it shows a picture of co-star Ann Jillian with a caption of "Jennifer Jason Leigh". Dunno if the schlock DVD producers didn't know the difference or if they just thought the photo of Jillian all dolled up like a prostitute would be more eye-grabbing.

The film itself is about as good as you'd expect a U.S. TV "movie of the week" from 1983 to be. Interestingly, there's some nudity (the breasts of Jennifer Jason Leigh and a couple of other actresses make an appearance), so I wonder if it was produced for a pay-TV channel.

I was surprised to find out after watching the film that it's based on a true story (I don't think they mention this in the credits anywhere). You'd never think this given the unrealistic nature of many of the events in the film.

Other than the stilted dialogue, lack of imagination, bog-standard camera setups, and whatnot, an annoying factor is the cross-racial casting. True, the average American can't tell at a glance from where in Asia someone comes from, but Asians can tell, and Asiaphiles can tell. Much worse than the non-Japanese-looking actors, however, is the absolutely horrible pronunciation of Japanese dialogue. Oddly, none of the Japanese dialogue is subtitled, which wouldn't have been too terrible for me, as I speak Japanese, but the language is so butchered by the non-Japanese-natives that I couldn't comprehend much of it. In one scene an American actress seems to use nonsense syllables when she's supposed to be speaking Japanese (perhaps she couldn't remember her line or they didn't get it translated for her in time or something).

To sum up, fans of Jennifer Jason Leigh (or T2 score-writer Brad Fiedel) may want to watch this out of curiosity, but others need not bother. Personally, I had to watch Leigh's wonderful performance in "The Hudsucker Proxy" afterwards to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.