DVD Review: The Chick’s Ability

From the mid-to-late '70s to the early-to-mid '80s, Brazil cranked out many a film from the “Pornochanchada” genre (say that five times fast).  While a handful of these features ventured into the rough areas of rape (and still a few more delved into actual hardcore sex), Pornochanchada films were, for the most part, nothing more than soft-core sex flicks containing an ample amount of skin and wrapped around a wafer-thin storyline that was usually so inane that it could make your head spin (so I’ve been told — these aren’t exactly easy to find in the States).  Oddly enough, the very Catholic country’s leaders never so much as batted an eye toward the making of these movies (so long as the stories steered clear of politics, that is), and filmmakers were pretty much given free reign.

Determined to boldly go where no distributor has gone before, Synapse Films (under their Impulse Pictures label) has taken advantage of their free reign and released one of what will probably become many Pornochanchada films: a little dirty ditty called The Chick’s Ability (Volúpia De Mulher).  Why?  Well, hell, I don’t know — but I’m guessing there’s at least one other person aside from myself that likes to ogle Brazilian babes (several websites come to mind — but I’m not at liberty to mention their names).

The Chick’s Ability stars Brazilian sexpot Helena Ramos, in what is believed to be her final of forty-some-odd excursions into the world of Pornochanchada movies.  In it, she plays a young girl named Laura who discovers the hard way that unprotected sex in the water with a handsome young stud will only result in getting pregnant (but it looked like damn good fun, nonetheless).

Laura’s life goes from bad to worse when she discovers that her newborn baby needs an emergency operation to save its life — and her parents have all but written her out of their life for being a slut to begin with.  With no other options left for the young bombshell (apparently, Brazil doesn’t have any welfare or single mother aid), Laura winds up working in a brothel to help pay for her baby’s procedure (but it’s a high-class one, so it’s okay).  Throw in a drag queen Madame, a painter obsessed with sex, and a macho manly Brazilian Freddie Mercury-looking kinda guy, and Pornochanchada regular Vanessa Alves, and you have yourself The Chick’s Ability: a good excuse to see a lot of flesh (both female and male alike) and little else.

The Synapse/Impulse release presents a new digital transfer of the movie in its original Open Frame 1.33:1 mode, which has been slightly windowboxed.  The image looks like every other mid-80s soft-core/porn film stock: with a great deal of grain (especially in some night scenes) and debris throughout — but come on, you’re not interested in all that, are you?  You want flesh and you want it now, dammit!  The original Portuguese audio is presented in glorious Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, with newly-translated removable English Subtitles available.  No special features are included with the exception of a liner note explaining Pornochanchada films, but then again, you're not really watching this for the special features, are you?