Skin Art
Well, this movie wasn't very interesting, at least, not to me.
The main character is some Vietnam vet who tatoos asian
prostitutes-to-be. For some reason, the women "trust him". But,
for Jake fans, it's a must to have. Jake plays Richard, a rather
interesting individual. In this movie, Jake looked like one big, mean,
tough dude. Still cute of course but it's hard to picture how he got so slender
looking just by losing weight later on. His hair was a light blond, sort of like
Tolliver's in 'What the Deaf Man Heard'. He had a slight Cockney accent,
reminiscent of Michael Caine. He wears nice suits, listens to opera,
even likes to go out to the opera in a tux and buys a neophyte prostitute
that he takes a liking to a $1,000 dress with all the extras but in the end,
he's only a pimp. He goes to the Orient for a Chinese Madam to check
out girls who are up for sale. We learn from the tatoo guy that
Richard is also responsible for teaching the girls their "art". Jake did
a great job with the character's putting on airs but also being able
to be tough. And for all his affected airs, he was a person who beat
prostitutes who wouldn't behave and apparently had killed his share
of fellow cutthroats.
It was sort of creepy that he was almost likeable since he was so cute
and did act so "civilized". But then he shows his stripes when he
attacks the tattoo guy and quickly pulls a knife when cornered in a
run-down corridor. We're supposed to believe that he would lose
that fight but then, the tattoo guy was the 'main character'.