To the best I can recall, I saw this film on HBO or Cinemax in the late 80’s.
It's the standard group-of-orphans-flee-cruel-orphanage-when-one-of-them-is adopted film, on acid. The heads of the orphanage staff carry battery-powered cattle prods and find torturing the kids sexually gratifying. Though the orphans are all boys, one of them dresses as a girl. A romance between him and the tough-as-nails-juvenile-delinquent boy blossoms later in the film.
The adopted boy is taken in by an insane yupie family. They have a son. But, he insists on living as a sumo: sleeping on a mat, wearing his hair in a topknot, dressing only in the sumo loincloth, and eating only raw fish. One scene involves him breaking his chopsticks and leaving the table when he discovers that his meal was killed and frozen rather than being served fresh. The yuppies also have a daughter. The orphan hides behind the shower curtain and takes nude photos of her.
Please tell me that one of you has seen this film and that I didn’t halucinate the whole thing. At first, I used that remark as a joke. But it’s almost 20 years later, and even the net has been no help in tracking down this movie.
:: covers eyes as post opens ::
From the title alone, I can tell you with certainty that it’s…
Bad Manners
Man, I love this movie. Apparently, it was also released as Growing Pains, but the copy I’ve got (oh yes) says Bad Manners. Haven’t watched this one in… damn. It’s been a couple years, by now. Time to dust off the tape!
(And actually, one of them was a girl. Pamela Segall, who went on to such masterwork as The Gate 2, and voicing the female cousin on King of the Hill. Well, she’s done a lot more than that, but them’s the ones at the top of my head.
However, your confusion on this is (I think) from a scene where the kids are in a bus station trying to drum up some cash, and the blonde kid puts on a wig, and offers to “Kiss you for a dollar” to some guy.
(Damn… why is it movie trivia like this sticks in my head for years, and I can’t remember where i left my friggin’ car keys two hours ago?)
[sub]Tally ho, tally ho, motorcycle midget hit the road![/sub]
Cheez, this gnaws at me for years. I come close to madness trying to find this film.
The SDMB gives me an answer in 2 and a half hours.
Thanks, Skeezix!
The weird thing is that I’d forgotten Martin Mull was in this. Must go rent this!
De nada, Doc.
Had I been able to find my keys, I could’ve answered ya in two minutes. Soon as I read the thread title, there was no doubt in my mind. Granted, that puts the two of us in a club of about 6 people, I think… Nobody I’ve ever met has seen this thing.
It’s a sickness, man. I’m such a movie junkie. Every movie I’ve ever seen that amuses me I end up either buying, or bootlegging off of cable. I’m gonna go freakin’ broke trying to upgrade all this crap to DVD. 
[sub]The pisser is I dug through videotapes for about an hour, and gave up without finding it. I know that bugger’s here, though… Ya just don’t have many people ask to borrow a flick like this 'un.[/sub]
I’ve never seen that one. However, the title of this thread needs to be turned over to the Board Names Repository thread and to the Great Names for a Band thread. I think the best one is Cattleprod Sumo, but the possibilities abound.
–Nott, Me ID Wierd Orphan