This overachieving porn noir video raises the interesting question of how to balance the commercial need of satisfying XXX porn fans, who latterly demand all-sex films, with the artistic impulse to actually tell a story, just like in the old days when porn played in movie theaters. Other than the inevitable satires of mainstream product, which are generally little more than feature-length puns, no one seems to have solved this equation.
David Aaron Clark, advertised on the DVD packaging as a cult Asian porn auteur, often succeeds here in creating a film noir atmosphere, with care in his lighting effects, but ultimately succumbs to the dull/drawn-out sex scene imperative. It's a bit like the well-known problem of Joe D'Amato -revered for his occasional horror movie brilliance but generally a purveyor of the dullest sex scenes imaginable.
Mr. Marcus gives a solid performance (not at the Bogart or Mitchum level, but a modern-day equivalent of Mark Stevens) in a role that would have fit Denzel Washington to a t, if the superstar suddenly went XXX. Without giving any spoilers, his character is highly reminiscent of the classic Robert Culp "who am I really" protagonist of Harlan Ellison's DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND, one of the outstanding episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS series back in 1964. After writing this, I just looked up the credits, and whoaaa! - his character has the same name as Culp's! So I wasn't hallucinating, Clark apparently made a direct homage (or as Ellison would undoubtedly claim, ripoff). Unlike the famous SOLDIER episode which inspired THE TERMINATOR, I'm certain that Ellison won't ask for his name to be added to the credits of this porn video, however! Marcus's amnesiac Detective Trent finds himself as presumably an L.A. cop (he has the badge and gun) wandering through a spooky building overnight, guided by a mysterious, ghostlike voice. He has sex with several beautiful Asian (and Eurasian) women, and witnesses others having sex, but it all plays out like a dream, with spooky sudden disappearances. Is he dead? Is he marked for death? Is it all a dream? Ultimately he gets the answers after shagging a truly exotic Dragon Lady played by Ange Venus.
Ange is a very unusual looking actress: beautiful, with the requisite large bust but on an anorexically-skinny frame (bones jutting out all over the place), and possessing long black hair that nearly reaches the ground. At one point she whips Mr. Marcus with her hair, indicating she must have a fetish career going besides straight porn. Although stuck with the "used-up" look so many porn actresses display, she coulda been a contender in the Gale Sondergaard legendary evil character sweepstakes if given a break. And as usual, she photographs better in the stills on the DVD box than as lit in the live action.
As a horror video, this one suffers from very uneven makeup effects. The low budget is evident, but occasionally the makeup looks right (a bullet wound at Mr. Marcus' temple for example), and then soon after a truly rotten effect is left in the final version that would shame any craftsman. The editing is haphazard, sometimes to the point of creating confusion, as when an extraneous lesbian succubus with strap-on is intercut with a conventional sex scene. This all goes back to the unfortunate fact that NOBODY CARES about quality in the porn genre -the attitude of the filmmakers towards the audience was quite insulting 40 or 50 years ago in the Barry Mahon and David Friedman era, and it has only gone downhill since. Russ Meyer, who NEVER went over the line into hardcore in his entire career, respected his fans, but we haven't seen his like since.
