David Stanley's weird porn cinema is full of surprises and zany ideas, still fresh after more than a decade sitting idly forgotten. Planned obsolescence is the name of the game in Adult Entertainment, but unearthing his work is worth the trouble.
"Happy Ending", its title telegraphing the sex-massage theme, is ostensibly a comeback vehicle on the Vivid label for the superstar Mimi Miyagi, whose peak was a decade earlier. But right from the first scene writer-director Stanley lampoons this, having Dale Dabone (a porn director here) as customer at her Mimi's Holistic Healing Center ask her for sexual favors, offering $200 or $300 in return. He makes fun of her being a retired porn star Mimi Miyagi (she's playing a fictionalized version of herself of course, as usual in porn), but she's steadfast on maintaining a legitimate business, and is angered by his racial stereotyping - all her staff is Oriental girls, hence his assumption that they're not on the level.
Her righteousness is immediately contradicted by the masseuse in the next room, Minka, giving T.J. Cummings a massage with her breasts. I applaud Stanley for being the only filmmaker to hire Minka, an all-time favorite of mine, for a feature after she had her breasts enlarged to legendary size. I watch her (many times over) in classics she shot before going nutso on enlargement, namely Ben Dover's "Duke of Knockers II" and the fabulous pairing with Angelique in "Emergency Ward DD".
The decision to cast her, and feature her in the first lengthy sex vignette of his film struck me as odd, since Minka would seemingly upstage star Mimi Miyagi. The marketing of the video is all about MM - you can barely see Minka's presence at all on either front or back of the DVD jacket. But there's method in Stanley's madness: Minka's extremely sexy scene with T.J. is followed by MM serviced by her thick-drawl Texan boyfriend Evan Stone. And we get to see a contrast: MM's fake boobs are reasonably sized in comparison to Minka and though Minka has huge nipples, a trademark, MM's are much bigger and spotlighted by Toni English/Kelly Holland's camera. The two actresses from different niches in the business make a good team.
Further evidence of that fact is a three-way lesbian scene pairing M & MM with a bigger star Kaylani Lei, cute and natural being her trademarks. I think their scene together is a classic, with a ton of variety, contrasting with often boring lesbian scenes as it avoids the lethargy of a purely "sensual" scene and does not descend into mere gonzo antics (see: Bonnie Rotten for example).
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Stanley goes way, way over the top in later reels, losing me at least temporarily with his antics. Perhaps this need to exaggerate and self-indulge is what has slowed his directorial career to a standstill of late, though his wacky scripts are still in demand from his partner in crime B. Skow.
Stone, whose broad smile and unrelenting energy are fun, seduces Lei, cheating on his girlfriend Mimi. Kaylani resists but suddenly out of character gives in - a strictly gonzo porn move. This threw me, but the scene continues through to Evan's money shot, and Mimi arrives to catch her boyfriend in flagrante delicto. Mimi angrily throws a vase at him but hits Lei in the head by accident killing her.
This sudden change in tone is contradicted even further by Minka entering the room, clad is slinky lingerie, suggesting a whole different mood. She's understandably alarmed, but the film continues with an abrupt cut back to the initial scene with Dabone.
This time Dabone turns over and gets the full sexual treatment from Mimi. After his money shot, Dabone turns to the camera and yells: "And Cut!" - screen goes to black - the end.
So Dabone has been directing a porn scene starring Mimi -that is the surprise -he in effect is the surrogate for director David Stanley. The entire house of cards has been subverted and torn apart by David on a whim. The tease of killing of Lei was merely a ruse or baiting of the audience.
Whether he gets away with all this sleight of hand is an issue for the individual viewer to decide, but there's no denying Stanley's audacity in toying with the medium he's working in. Some of my favorite directors of all time, namely Sacha Guitry, Jacques Rivette and Luis Bunuel, pioneered this opening up of the black box of cinema and tinkering with its tenets and assumptions, so more power to Mr. Stanley for applying similar methods to the rarely examined inner workings of Adult Cinema. And I will be forever thankful that somebody, anybody, afforded Minka some respect late in her curious career.
It must be acknowledged, however, that "Happy Ending" flopped in one serious respect - Mimi Miyagi's comeback in porn fizzled completely: in the 13 years since she has only appeared in a handful of non-sex films.
"Happy Ending", its title telegraphing the sex-massage theme, is ostensibly a comeback vehicle on the Vivid label for the superstar Mimi Miyagi, whose peak was a decade earlier. But right from the first scene writer-director Stanley lampoons this, having Dale Dabone (a porn director here) as customer at her Mimi's Holistic Healing Center ask her for sexual favors, offering $200 or $300 in return. He makes fun of her being a retired porn star Mimi Miyagi (she's playing a fictionalized version of herself of course, as usual in porn), but she's steadfast on maintaining a legitimate business, and is angered by his racial stereotyping - all her staff is Oriental girls, hence his assumption that they're not on the level.
Her righteousness is immediately contradicted by the masseuse in the next room, Minka, giving T.J. Cummings a massage with her breasts. I applaud Stanley for being the only filmmaker to hire Minka, an all-time favorite of mine, for a feature after she had her breasts enlarged to legendary size. I watch her (many times over) in classics she shot before going nutso on enlargement, namely Ben Dover's "Duke of Knockers II" and the fabulous pairing with Angelique in "Emergency Ward DD".
The decision to cast her, and feature her in the first lengthy sex vignette of his film struck me as odd, since Minka would seemingly upstage star Mimi Miyagi. The marketing of the video is all about MM - you can barely see Minka's presence at all on either front or back of the DVD jacket. But there's method in Stanley's madness: Minka's extremely sexy scene with T.J. is followed by MM serviced by her thick-drawl Texan boyfriend Evan Stone. And we get to see a contrast: MM's fake boobs are reasonably sized in comparison to Minka and though Minka has huge nipples, a trademark, MM's are much bigger and spotlighted by Toni English/Kelly Holland's camera. The two actresses from different niches in the business make a good team.
Further evidence of that fact is a three-way lesbian scene pairing M & MM with a bigger star Kaylani Lei, cute and natural being her trademarks. I think their scene together is a classic, with a ton of variety, contrasting with often boring lesbian scenes as it avoids the lethargy of a purely "sensual" scene and does not descend into mere gonzo antics (see: Bonnie Rotten for example).
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Stanley goes way, way over the top in later reels, losing me at least temporarily with his antics. Perhaps this need to exaggerate and self-indulge is what has slowed his directorial career to a standstill of late, though his wacky scripts are still in demand from his partner in crime B. Skow.
Stone, whose broad smile and unrelenting energy are fun, seduces Lei, cheating on his girlfriend Mimi. Kaylani resists but suddenly out of character gives in - a strictly gonzo porn move. This threw me, but the scene continues through to Evan's money shot, and Mimi arrives to catch her boyfriend in flagrante delicto. Mimi angrily throws a vase at him but hits Lei in the head by accident killing her.
This sudden change in tone is contradicted even further by Minka entering the room, clad is slinky lingerie, suggesting a whole different mood. She's understandably alarmed, but the film continues with an abrupt cut back to the initial scene with Dabone.
This time Dabone turns over and gets the full sexual treatment from Mimi. After his money shot, Dabone turns to the camera and yells: "And Cut!" - screen goes to black - the end.
So Dabone has been directing a porn scene starring Mimi -that is the surprise -he in effect is the surrogate for director David Stanley. The entire house of cards has been subverted and torn apart by David on a whim. The tease of killing of Lei was merely a ruse or baiting of the audience.
Whether he gets away with all this sleight of hand is an issue for the individual viewer to decide, but there's no denying Stanley's audacity in toying with the medium he's working in. Some of my favorite directors of all time, namely Sacha Guitry, Jacques Rivette and Luis Bunuel, pioneered this opening up of the black box of cinema and tinkering with its tenets and assumptions, so more power to Mr. Stanley for applying similar methods to the rarely examined inner workings of Adult Cinema. And I will be forever thankful that somebody, anybody, afforded Minka some respect late in her curious career.
It must be acknowledged, however, that "Happy Ending" flopped in one serious respect - Mimi Miyagi's comeback in porn fizzled completely: in the 13 years since she has only appeared in a handful of non-sex films.