Kyoko

This is a very nice little film that is (1) a Japanese picture about AIDS and AIDS prejudices, (2) an American road movie complete with the classic drive into the American South, (3) an homage to Cuban dancing. The first and third of these genres work extremely well, the second less so. (Why is the South always portrayed as the dark subconscious of the American psyche? The version here may be somewhat less horrific than that confronted by Fonda, Nicholson and Hopper in Easy Rider, but it's a difference of degree rather than of kind.) The music in this film is fabulous and with the success of the Buena Vista Social Club, producer Roger Corman et al are missing a serious opportunity for some cross marketing here.