ASIAN IS IN AND BIG, SAYS VETERAN DISTRIBUTOR

They operate from a small and otherwise nondescript warehouse here, but Vico Distributors/Avica Entertainment is striking for big game - the surge in Asian-oriented adult video and other specialty-cum-fetish productions.

And for Vico's Victor Gueta, it's all a question of fun as well as profit.

"I love this business," he says while taking a visitor through his thickly-stocked warehouse. "I buy movies from China, I buy movies from Japan, I buy from all over the place, and I want to do something just a little bit different than everybody else."

Gueta figures Asian-oriented niche films are just the difference for him, particularly since they have what he calls a "special" appeal.

"Number one, I think, the girls look very young, that's the number one catch," he says. "People want to see young girls, they want to see new faces. They want to see someone different."

For the same reason, Gueta is also steering Vico/Avica toward the niche market of those who like seeing older women in sexual performances. "It's a fetish, and there are people who love it, and just like the Asian films it's going to find its place," he says.

Gueta also says he's picking up an audience from a source which American buyers might, at times, consider surprising, mostly because they don't always understand how other countries consider porn and its making.

"In Japan, you cannot buy movies that show public hair. Only in America," he says. "So Japanese people, they come to Hawaii, or to the mainland of America, and they buy here, the Japanese movies. They can't get hardcore in Japan, so they come here and they buy it."

Gueta has been in the business for twelve years, which he considers something of a small miracle. "People come and go from it all the time, but I love it too much," he says.

Coming releases include the series Very Asian 1 and 2 in January, Vols. 3 and 4 coming in March, and Pussy Buffet shortly afterward. And he's not worried about the market's future, either. "It's going to keep doing very well," he says.