Wink a Hopeful Eye

This sadomasochistic mystery involves Japanese businessmen, Colombian drug runners and unprincipled British journalists-all angling for computer chips, an international currency used to purchase cocaine. Georgina Powers, a London writer specializing in technology, investigates the black market trade in ``drams,'' aka ``dynamic random access memory chips.'' She learns that $1 million worth of drams is trading hands among several gamblers, then discovers that a Japanese chip expert has been murdered after losing the booty in a card game. Business mixes with pleasure: Georgina's lover, the stoic Shinichro Saito, is seen in the company of drug lords, while her other lover, the smiling but dangerous Pal Kuthy, has interest in the chips himself. Georgina is often beaten, raped or abducted by one or the other of these two; Saito physically punishes her for infidelity and Pal calmly fires his gun into the pillow next to her head. Computer-philes may appreciate Danks's (Frame Grabber) dweebish premise, but the misanthropic story and its cast, including hard-drinking, cigarette-puffing, pregnant Georgina, is merely sleazy. (Dec.)