KINJITE: FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS (1989)
Label: MGM
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 97 Minutes 53 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: J Lee Thompson
Cast: Charles Bronson, Perry Lopez, James Pax, Peggy Lipton, Sy Richardson, Juan Fernandez, Marion Kodama Yue, Bill McKinney, Gerald Castillo, Nicole Eggert
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989) was the last team-up of action superstar Charles Bronson (10 To Midnight) and director J. Lee Thompson (Happy Birthday To Me). They really go all-out in the exploitation department for this cop-thriller, a two-fisted, gritty thriller about a hardnosed LAPD vice-squad detective, Lt. Crowe who is hellbent on destroying a child prostitution ring after his teen daughter Rita (Amy Hathaway, The Client) is molested on a city bus.
Interestingly, the molester that feels her up on the bus is a Japanese businessman named Hiroshi (James Pax, Invasion U.S.A.) who is imitating something he saw on a bus back in Japan, something that turned him on then, but which does not have the same end result here when he attempts it. When she screams and sounds the alarm he gets off the bus in a panic, and in the aftermath several innocent Asian men are beat-up because of his actions; be warned there is a lot of anti-Asian sentiment in this flick, especially from Bronson's character. Even more interesting it's the offenders daughter Fumiko (Kumiko Hayakawa) who ends up being kidnapped by a child prostitution ring led by the sleazy "Pimp King" Duke (Juan Fernández, The Collector), which leads to the already enraged Lt. Crowe and his partner Det. Eddie Rios (Perry Lopez, Chinatown) to go after Duke, breaking plenty of laws themselves along the way, including "accidentally" tossing one of the Duke's henchmen off a high-rise balcony to his death in the pool below. While they rescue Fumiko she is so traumatized by the experience she suicides by overdose soon afterward, leading to a pretty frenzied and action-packed finale that happens at a port on the harbor, with Bronson's cop riding atop a huge crane-claw firing his hand-cannon. It's plenty entertaining, the whole flick punctuated with sleaze and cop on thug action, including the infamous opening scene with Bronson shoving a dildo up a bad guy's butt! It's a wildly racist and rape-y Bronson flick, plenty entertaining, and about the only redeeming message here is that the racist cop played by Bronson seems to overcome his Asian racism when he sees how much the secret bus-molester Hiroshi cares for his kidnapped daughter - so, I guess that's redeeming, sort of, right? Anyway, no one is watching Bronson flick looking for redemption, they're looking for vigilante-cop carnage, and this delivers all that and more in spades.
Audio/Video: Previously issued on Blu-ray from the noel defunct Olive Films back in 2015 Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989) is back in print widescreen from MGM, presented on Blu-ray in 1080p HD framed in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). This is probably the same HD master as that Olive release but I do not have it for comparison. Grain is well-managed, looking naturally course and grainy, fine detail and textures are pleasing, and the colors are robust. Audio comes y way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track is clean and well-balanced, dialogue is well-placed, and the sounds of Bronson causing all sorts of carnage in his pursuit of the baddies with gunshots, screeching tires and explosions are impactful. The score from Greg De Belles (Men At Work) also sounds solid.
As with most of these MGM Blu-ray catalog reissues there are no extras, no even a trailer. The single-disc Blu-ray arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
- None
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