Well Bronson sure has a real scumbag to shake down in this film, KINJITE:FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS, in pimp Juan Fernández(whose name is Duke!)who seduces minors(mostly female 16 year olds)into becoming prostitutes for "wealthy perverts". He and partner, Eddie Rios(Perry Lopez)are assigned by their superior to find the teenage daughter of a Japanese businessman, Hiroshi Hada(James Pax), kidnapped by Duke and his vile associate, Lavonne(Sy Richardson). You see Duke and Lavonne drive down LA streets searching for "fresh stock", teenage runaways desperate for attention, luxuries, bed, board, and food, the amenities. Kids believe Duke only wants the best for them(as is the case when Bronson's detective Crowe questions the loyalties of one such prostitute played by a young Nicole Eggert who tells him the Duke is a good man, better than her step-father!)and so they hook for him and in return he gives them what they believe is "the good life." In J Lee Thompson's final film, KINJITE is obviously an indictment on the exploitation of teenage girls and how they are consumed by lecherous fiends who promise them great things in exchange for prostituting themselves. There's also a statement, through the character of Crowe, about the discontenting nature of festering racism..take the scene where Crowe becomes enraged with Japanese tourists and businessmen who he considers "invaders", buying up everything in America. This racism extends from an incident where Hiroshi himself "cops a feel" of Crowe's daughter while she and some of her friends are on board a bus heading home(Crowe doesn't know who it was exactly, just "some Oriental guy"). Thompson and company know how far to go and thank goodness Crowe's family isn't raped and murdered as was often the case in the Winner DEATH WISH movies. By '89 Bronson could no longer hide the fact that he was around 70 years old and that his geriatric cop hero roles were soon to be retired. Unbelievable as it might be, Bronson would actually return to his Kersey role five years later for DEATH WISH V, not to mention the A FAMILY OF COPS series, even as he was approaching 80! Fernandez is a really depraved kind of monster who actually gets off a bit easier than you'd think(hell, even a client of Fernandez, although off-screen, gets a dildo up his ass by Crowe!), though his fate is rather fitting. The subject matter for this film is really off-putting but relevant, and Thompson uses subtlety instead of elaborating in exact detail. Thompson's action-packed finale lets him go out with quite a bang as explosions and machine gun fire there are aplenty.
Review of Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
