Shinjuku Boys

((BRITISH -- DOCU))

A Twentieth Century Vixen production for the BBC. (International sales: Twentieth Century Vixen, London.) Produced by Kim Longinotto. Executive producer , Alan Bookbinder. Directed, written by Kim Longinotto, Jano Williams.

Narrator: Shuko Noguchi.

Following their portrait of the Japanese all-female gender-bending Takarazuka Revue ("Dream Girls"), British docu team Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams wade deeper into the sexual middle ground with "Shinjuku Boys," an accessible and angst-free look at femme transvestites in a Tokyo club. Invigorated by frank and unself-conscious testimonies from its main subjects, this hourlong film should find a ready slot in specialized webs and gay events.

Pic focuses on three employees of the New Marilyn club-bar, whither straight women come to girlishly while away the time with female cross-dressers. There's Gaish, a cool-looking dude who's ruthless with women who fall for her; Kazuki, who lives with a transsexual singer; and Tatsu, who lives with cute student Tomoe and is halfway to male heaven, thanks to illegal hormone injections.

Alternating interviews with the main players and their partners with sequences shot in the ritzy club, the film builds a spectrum of a genuinely alternative sex -- women who dress, live and want to be accepted as men and on whom the simple label of "lesbian" doesn't fit comfortably. Biggest surprise is that the sexual act doesn't figure large in their sensual universes: Gaish admits she only gives pleasure rather than receives it; and Kazuki and Tatsu limit themselves to kissing and cuddling.

Given the Japanese setting, it's easy to write the whole thing off as another exotic tableau from a foreign culture, but the women'sfrankness(and a funny-squirmy sequence in which Kazuki reveals her lifestyle to her mom over the phone) sufficiently humanizes the subject for Western auds to tune in, on whatever level they wish. Pic is refreshingly free of occidental gender sermonizing. Tech credits are functional but acceptable. The occasional narration by a Japanese would benefit from being redone by an English speaker.

Camera (color, 16 mm), Longinotto; editor, John Mister; music, Nigel Hawks; sound, Rosie Straker. Reviewed at London Film Festival, Nov. 14, 1995. Running time: 53 MIN.

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