Movie

Girls of the White Orchid

1983 · 96 min

A tense, grim descent into exploitation, watching a naive outsider get trapped far from home with little hope of escape.

Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan
Genres: Action, Thriller, Romance
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Byrd, Mako

Overview: In Los Angeles, naive and lonely waitress and aspirant singer Carol finds an advertisement for a job opportunity in Tokyo. Traveling to Japan to work at the White Orchid nightclub, 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 and her husband Hatanaka to be receptive to client's proposals.

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Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan
Genres: Action, Thriller, Romance
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Byrd, Mako

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: darkstrength 3 of 3
tensestrength 2 of 3
bleakstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 1 of 3
Pacing: measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: isolation
crime
survival
betrayal
power
Places: big city
workplace
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: true story
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence strong
Sex strong

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	5
Horror	3
Humour	1
Realism	7
Romance	4
Tension	7
Darkness	7
Complexity	4
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

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Details

Genres: action, thriller, romance, tv movie
Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan
Written by: Michael Raschella, Carole Raschella
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Byrd, Mako, Carolyn Seymour, Richard Narita, Soon-Tek Oh, Ann Jillian, Yvonne McCord
Music: Brad Fiedel
Cinematography: John Lindley
Runtime: 96 min
Country: United States of America
Languages: Japanese, English

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Girls of the White Orchid

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