Second time around with this Abel Ferrara/Christ Zois adaptation of a William Gibson short. Directed by Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) and prompted by seeing his other collaboration with Christopher Walken (King of New York) about a year ago. Incidentally also an Annabella Sciorra segue from Romeo is Bleeding and Jungle Fever. She plays a procuress here. And, to a far lesser extent, Gretchen Moll from Boardwalk Empire in a non-speaking German putatively cold-hearted bitch wife role. And also Willem Dafoe and Ryuichi Sakamoto from everywhere.
Things fall apart almost from the start. The nightclub scenes grope for David Lynch's Twin Peaks with prostitute Asia Argento, nepo baby before it was cool, doing her best with a character that has no interiority. Her scenes in general and specifically with Dafoe aim for sexy but come across as exploitative, perhaps because they were improvised and the actors aren't comfortable with each other. The idea of pilfernating biotech genius Yoshitaka Amano for one zaibatsu from another with a honey trap was stale in the 1980s. Walken is tasked with explaining it all to us until he takes a Scarface swan dive.
The whole thing is spliced up footage from different technologies. The video feels dated and the lengthy final movement, which attempts to retell what we've seen from an insufficiently-distinct perspective, is weakly impressionistic and lacks the visual innovation of Wong Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle.
Janet Maslin at the time. Lurid. Also David Stratton. I'm sure Roger Ebert saw it but it seems he didn't bother writing it up.
