Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

Summary

“Colorful. But stupid.”

MGM has recently released some of their catalog titles onto Blu-ray, many of which were released at some point on the defunct Olive Films label or Twilight Time label in the past. These releases have been no-frills releases which typically just feature the film itself without any special features. Most of the time, the master used is also older, and the film is typically housed in an 25-GB disc, but these releases have allowed film collectors to pick up copies of numerous titles that had become fairly pricey after they went out of print. In the case of Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, Olive Films had released the film on Blu-ray in 2015. I am a fan of Charles Bronson’s films, and own a good amount of them that have come to Blu-ray or 4K in the last few years. I had not seen Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, but I was definitely excited to check it out.

In Los Angeles, police officer Lieutenant Crowe (Charles Bronson) desperately wants to take down a pimp named Duke (Juan Fernandez) whose specialty seems to be young girls. Duke and his partner Lavonne (Sy Richardson) abduct and introduce the girls to drugs when they arrive in town. Crowe is especially against Duke’s actions since he has a fifteen year old daughter at home named Rita whom he wants to protect. Crowe’s wife Kathleen (Peggy Lipton) thinks that Crowe is a bit too protective of her, but she loves him. In Tokyo, businessman Hiroshi Hada (James Pax) lives in a marriage that he does not find sexually fulfilling. He is unfaithful and has marital difficulties because of it. He is learning the English language for his work. One day, on a train he sees a man reach out and touch a woman who is standing on the train. This leads to the woman silently climaxing, and fuels Hiroshi’s fantasies. When Hiroshi is transferred to Los Angeles, he gets drunk and begins to take a bus home. On the bus he attempts to fulfill his fantasy by touching a girl near him. It is Rita Crowe. She screams and he makes his way off the bus. He gets away, but is mugged. The daughter can not identify the man who molested her, but remembers a pin he was wearing on his lapel. His action causes Liutenant Crowe to be very racially insensitive towards Asian people. In a twist of fate, Liutenant Crowe and Hiroshi cross paths when Hiroshi’s young girl Fumiko is abducted and exploited by Duke.

Every now and then I watch a film that makes me say out loud, “what the Hell did I just watch?” This was definitely the case with Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects. The film brings together two things that I love – Charles Bronson cop films, and Late Eighties/Early Nineties Japanese paranoia films (think Rising Sun, or Black Rain.) America was absolutely terrified that Japan was going to do everything we do in America better. Unfortunately, when meshing these two genres together, screenwriter Harold Nebenzal decided to focus on the extremely unpalatable subject of child sex trafficking. Like some other critics have pointed out, the film suffers from the filmmakers not having a good handle on how delicately this subject should be handled, leading to a fairly bizarre viewing experience that is not entirely enjoyable. 

Kinjite reunited Charles Bronson with J. Lee Thompson whom had already worked with him on eight films including 10 to Midnight, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown and Murphy’s Law. This was their final picture together, and the last picture that J. Lee Thompson ever directed. This was also the last Cannon Pictures film starring Bronson, because the company went bankrupt soon after. I really like 10 to Midnight quite a lot, so I was hopeful that Kinjite would be a slam dunk. At first, it felt like the movie was going to be a tremendous amount of fun. The first thirty minutes establish Bronson as a cop that is completely fed up with the criminal justice system and is willing to take matters into his own hands outside of normal procedure, including threatening to jam an object up the ass of a pedophile. That is all well and fun. The movie then crosses over to Japan and introduces us to a sexually frustrated Japanese business man. The scenes in Tokyo are visually exciting. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, the story of the sexually frustrated Japanese business man seem pretty superfluous and culminates in a scene where he touches Bronson’s daughter. So…. What the hell is that all about? This character is not the bad guy – the bad guy is the pimp Duke that Bronson could have easily taken care of early on in the picture. Why is Hiroshi a villain as well? Why is that issue never fully resolved? The script’s choices are truly beyond bizarre.

Also, Bronson might be the worst police officer to ever wear a badge. Liutenant Crowe constantly breaks laws and stomps on people’s civil liberties every chance he can get, but in such an ineffective way that viewers will likely be confused by most if not all of his actions. For example, when bad guys shoot up an entire restaurant trying to kill him due to actions he had taken against them, he basically shrugs it off. It is all fairly hilarious, but in a completely unintentional way. The script is definitely pretty tone-deaf in terms of how it handles Japanese culture as well. Between all of those issues and the stilted dialogue, this movie will definitely appeal more to Bronson completists than to casual film viewers. On the plus side, the cinematography by  Gideon Porath works really well with J. Lee Thompson’s direction (aside from a fairly flat feeling finale action sequence.) Bronson is fun to watch in the film, but he definitely seems a little tired in it. Juan Fernandez is fine as the villianous Duke, but he is not necessarily as intimidating a presence as one would want for a villian. I mainly feel bad for James Pax who had the part of Hiroshi. He feels wasted in this effort. Peggy Lipton is also not given much to do in the film. Fans of that era will enjoy seeing Baywatch babe Nicole Eggert in a small part early in her career.

At the end of the day, I can’t pretend that I wasn’t entertained by this absolute mess of a movie, but it is not one of Bronson’s better efforts. 

Video

MGM has presented Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects in 1080p using an MPEG-4 AVC encode in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The master used is not a new master, and is more than likely the same master provided to Olive Films for their 2015 Blu-ray. While the master is not new, I was not upset with how the film looked. In fact, the cinematography by Gideon Porath does a solid job of bringing color out of the nighttime streets of Los Angeles. The film is presented on a 25GB disc. There is obviously room for improvement, and I found myself thinking about what a label like Vinegar Syndrome could have done with this material, but this is a picture that is unlikely to see a substantial upgrade over what is presented here..

Audio

MGM’s DTS-HD MA 2.0 track presents the film pretty well. I actually was more pleased with this track than other reviewers, with only the finale letting me down. This track represents the original sound design pretty well, for better or worse.

Supplements

• There are no supplements.

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.5/5 

Audio – 3.5/5

Supplements – 0/5

Overall – 3/5

Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects reunites Charles Bronson for the ninth and final time with filmmaker J. Lee Thompson. Unfortunately, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is one of their lesser efforts. With a meandering script and unsavory material that is handled insensitively, Kinjite fails to fully come together in a cohesive or satisfying way. The dialogue is stilted and Bronson’s character seems to have no clue whatsoever how to do police work within the confines of the law. MGM has given fans of the film another chance to own the picture, which was originally given a Blu-ray release by Olive Films in 2015. The transfer of the film comes from an older master, but it still looked pretty decent overall. This is definitely only recommended for purchase for Bronson or Cannon Films completists, and even they will probably have some issues with it.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.