Girls of the White Orchid (1983)

A Masterpiece!

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In Los Angeles, the naive and lonely burger waitress and aspirant singer Carol Heath (Jennifer Jason Leigh) finds an advertisement in the newspaper with a job opportunity in Tokyo. She has a meeting with the agents, the American Cavanaugh (Philip Charles MacKenzie) and the Japanese Shiro (Richard Narita); she signs the contract in English and Japanese and travels to Japan to work at the White Orchid night-club. She shares a hotel room with a dancer and sooner she discovers the scheme of prostitution in the club that belongs to Yakuza. Alone, without money and her passport, she is protected by Shiro, but pressed by the managers Madame Mori (Carolyn Seymour) and her husband Mori (Mako) to be receptive to client's proposals. Meanwhile her former boyfriend returns to LA and seeks her out."Girls of the White Orchid" is a good story of trafficking of human beings, showing the recruitment, transfer and reception of white slaves. Unfortunately, the plot becomes unrealistic in the moment that Carol refuses to prostitute, and has an awful commercial conclusion with the rescue of her boyfriend. There are better recent movies about this theme but considering that this is a TV movie of 1983, I believe it is one of the first to deal with this subject. The reviews in IMDb and the IMDb User Rating are very unfair with this film. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Escravas Brancas" ("White Slaves")

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.

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".

I admit I rented this purely because the above named actress was in it so I felt it must be good. While I did not know this was based on a true story until I found IMDb, that doesn't change the fact that the movie was of low caliber even though it gives the story in general an extra dose of heartbreak.Let me start with the positves. Good acting. Well what else to expect from Ms Lee? She is a top quality actress and she gives it her all here. Actually everyone was believable. The movie was a bit frightening at points in its believability.But the negatives outweigh the positives. here's the problem.This was WAY to movie of the weekish.(which maybe it was-I had thought it was a straight to video movie until I read otherwise on here.) But the movie makers had the ingredients to make a good picture-sad, realistic subject matter, and one of the most talented actresses of our generation. Unfortunately that didn't happen.Instead, we get a picture that seemed at times almost exploitative. When I rented it I had no idea how much nudity there was and it seemed to me a lot of things were done for shock value. This just reminded me of those late night b movies that run when most people are asleep and don't know their on. Knowing now that this was based on a true story it seems, even more so, that stronger material could have been developed so the acotrs/actresses would have had more to work with. I admit I rented it based on the fact that Jennifer was in it. But I expected more quality and there should have been more. I would unfortunately not give this more then a 3 or 4 out of 10-though higher for the acting. It's to Jennifer's credit that even in a weak picture she still steals the show.