Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989)

1st View
Format: DVD
Venue: Rivendell (Bronsothon)

The Good: Again we have a film with fabulous bookends and a lackluster center. The beginning and ending of the film are damn solid. It ends with an excellent shootout on a dock and opens with Charles Bronson angrily shoving a dildo up a pedophile's ass.

The Bad: Kinjite is an incredibly trashy piece of sleaze. It alternates between Bronson screaming racist epitaphs at Japanese people and an extended montage of greasy men raping a young girl. It's the kind of film that makes you feel as if you need to take a hot shower immediately afterward.


The Weird: There is a plot device involving the father of the kidnapped Japanese girl having bizarre sexual proclivities and groping Charles Bronson's daughter on a bus. You think this is building toward a conflict when Bronson is put on the case of the Japanese girl's abduction. And in fact there is a moment near the end of the film when the Japanese father, so pleased to have his daughter back, brings a gift to Bronson and the daughter recognizes him....and then nothing happens. Cinema's most unnecessary story element?

Rating: 5/10 Atkins