Richard Narita Movies

So how far would you go to win a beauty pageant? That's the burning question of Drop Dead Gorgeous, in which the citizens of Mount Rose, Minnesota gear up for the year's biggest event, the Sarah Rose Miss Teen Princess America Pageant, in which Becky Leeman (Denise Richards) and Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst) are the contestants to beat. Becky's mother Gladys (Kirstie Alley), a former beauty queen herself, has instilled in her daughter a drive to succeed at any cost. And Gladys will do anything to help Becky's chances of success. Amber's mother Annette (Ellen Barkin) is devoted to her daughter but drinks, smokes, and swears like a sailor. And while Amber is ambitious and a skilled beautician (a talent that she uses in her part-time job at the local mortuary), her view of the pageant is pragmatic: while boys can get sports scholarships, this pageant may be her only ticket out of town. However, Amber and the other contestants may have underestimated just how badly Becky wants to win -- or just how good she is with a gun. Drop Dead Gorgeous was directed by Michael Patrick Jann, a founding member of the sketch comedy group The State (who had their own series on MTV), and written by Lorna Williams, a veteran of the beauty pageant circuit who claims that nearly everything in the film is based on an actual incident. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

While discussing the hiring of a new head writer with Artie (Rip Torn), Phil Wallace Langham) unexpectedly jockeys for the position himself. Despite the fact that Artie thinks Phil lacks the "people skills" that the job of head writer demands, he gives a determined Phil a shot at the job. Quickly disillusioned due to the substantial amount that office politics play into the job, Phil runs into grief with both Paula (Janeane Garofalo) as well as a headstrong executive. Soon on the outs with the rest of the writers, Phil makes outrageous demands in hopes that Artie will fire him. The plan backfires, and Artie is convinced that Phil will go a long way as head writer. Special guests include Doug Ballard, John Riggi, Jim Turner, Richard Narita, and SCTV alum Dave Thomas. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A vehicle for popular wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan, Suburban Commando is an inoffensive science-fiction fantasy. Hogan plays Shep Ramsey, a well-sculpted if somewhat dimwitted intergalactic hero. On vacation from fighting crime on other planets, he has a fight with an alien enemy and his spaceship is damaged. He seeks refuge on Earth until his ship can be revived. Trying to look inconspicuous as an ordinary human being without special powers, he is befriended by a suburban family headed by Charlie Wilcox (Christopher Lloyd) and his wife Jenny (Shelley Duvall). Ramsey's stay isn't peaceful because he has such a keen sense of justice, which he dishes out to muggers, reckless drivers, and even smart-aleck paper carriers. In the end, he has to defend the family against his bold nemesis. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Though a murdered Magnum (Tom Selleck) was seen wandering off to Heaven in the final episode of Magnum, P.I.'s seventh season, the public demanded the return of both the character and the series. Thus, Season Eight begins with Magnum still in a coma, the result of a violent shootout. In this state, the detective has an out-of-body experience, in which he is guided Heavenward by his old friend "Mac" MacReynolds (Jeff MacKay, who plays a dual role in this episode). Fortunately, he awakens to find himself back in the "real" world--whereupon he grimly sets out to find the surviving member of the criminal trio who nearly caused him to cash in his chips. Featured in small but significant roles are series star Tom Selleck's mother Martha Selleck and son Kevin Selleck. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The made-for-television American Geisha was based on the published reminiscences of real-life anthropologist Liza Dalby. Pam Dawber stars as the Dalby counterpart, here renamed Gillian Burke. As part of the research for her Stanford University grad-school thesis, Gillian heads to the Japanese town of Kyoto, there to work as an authentic geisha girl. Richard Narita costars as the Japanese gentleman with whom Gillian falls in love. Less than a year before American Geisha's September 11, 1986 premiere, Narita essayed a similar role in the white-slavery melodrama Girls of the White Orchid. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on true incidents, this movie follows the plight of a young American girl who travels to Japan to start work as a club singer, only to discover that she has been tricked into working as a prostitute for the Yakuza. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Spoofing the entire 1940s detective genre, and his own performances as a bumbling private detective, Peter Falk plays Lou Pekinpaugh, a San Francisco private detective accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress, the partner's wife, Georgia Merkle (Marsha Mason). Police Lieutenant DiMaggio (Vic Tayback) has his eye on Lou and blunders around in a way which complicates Lou's efforts to clear his name. Lou gets a new client when Mrs. Montenegro (Madeline Kahn) and her cronies (John Housman, Paul Williams and Dom DeLuise) hire him to search out a dozen diamond eggs. Marlene DuChard (Louise Fletcher) also comes to him for help of a complicated nature. In this madcap comedy written by Neil Simon, obstacles and complications appear every few minutes, and a great many famous actors show up in hilarious cameos. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In an episode obviously inspired by the death of Bruce Lee, Quincy's assistant Sam (Robert Ito) takes it personally when his cousin Tad Kimura, a martial-arts movie star, dies mysteriously while filming his latest picture. As Quincy (Jack Klugman) prepares to perform an autopsy, Sam begs him not to do so, since such an operation would be against Tad's religious beliefs. So adamant is Sam on this point that he quits the Coroner's Office, putting Quincy on the outs with LA's Japanese community and forcing him to chart a brand new course in his investigation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As penned by Neil Simon, this satire of movie mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). In Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various death-dealing devices. While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another. Each character is broadly based on a famous literary detective: Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is an aphorism-spouting Charlie Chan clone: Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are patterned on the protagonists of the Thin Man flicks; Milo Perrier (James Coco), a Hercule Poirot takeoff, stalks through the proceedings declaring "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!"; Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade rolled in one; and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is a dottier variation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Best bit: a "conversation" between blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness) and deaf-mute maid Yetta (Nancy Walker). The fade-out gag of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson showing up late for Lionel Twain's party was edited from the theatrical version of Murder by Death, but was restored for TV. The film marked the big-screen directorial debut of Robert Moore, who'd previously directed several of Neil Simon's Broadway productions. Moore went on to direct another Simon spoof, The Cheap Detective (1978), before his untimely death. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi