Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

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Their ninth and final film together over a 12-year partnership, 'Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects' basically plays out as a Death Wish installment with Charles Bronson portraying Lieutenant Crowe instead of Paul Kersey, and being focused in anger both over child prostitution and that his own teenage daughter was molested by a Japanese businessman. Many would write this off as simply an exploitation film, but I love the fact that, like 'Gentleman's Agreement', it shows both that different degrees of racism are possible in anyone, but is also stoppable, as in seeing that a Japanese father cares about his daughter just as much as he cares about his own, he changes his own perspective. And the ending, that the criminal gets what's coming to him, is very satisfying, and makes many of Bronson's films such guilty pleasures...

"Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects" has sexual misconduct and an assortment of other downright criminal activity at its centre. The misconduct comes in the form of the strict sexuality of Japanese society, so if a woman happens to be sexually assaulted such matters are dealt with in an extremely discreet manner. This element of the film lends the proceedings an intriguing extra dimension which is seldom encountered in this genre of film. The rest of it concentrates on much more familiar and cliched themes with Charles Bronson's Lieutenant Crowe avenging himself on the unscrupulous Duke (he forces him to eat his own gold Rolex watch at one point) for his mistreatment of the young girls he dupes and then drafts into the miserably sickening life of prostitution which keeps him in the life to which he has become accustomed.