Death Ride to Osaka (1983).
Directed by Jonathan Kaplan
Written by Carole and Michael Raschella
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ann Jillian, Mako, and Richard Narita
The Stage.
A Los Angeles waitress who aspires to be a singer answers an ad for opportunities in the Orient. After she makes the trip, she realizes she’s being strong-armed into a prostitution ring led by the Yakuza.
The Review.
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 a shitty 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.
The End.
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 bitching 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.
