movies

 **
 As an international thriller about corporate chicanery, the latest from Olivier Assayas (“Irma Vep”) is risible. But as a pedestal upon which Asia Argento performs her hotter-than-magma sexual provocations, it is a thing of wonder.

Argento (also starring in M/SPIFF’s “The Last Mistress”) daughter of influential Italian horror movie filmmaker Dario Argento, makes nibbling her pinkie a near-pornographic act. Cast as a noir renaissance woman (heroin importer/hitwoman/webmistress/prostitute), she seems eerily credible.

Michael Madsen is a shady businessman who has used her to sleep with and spy on his rivals. The pair spend an electrifying half hour abusing each other with humiliating sex talk, lingerie, handcuffs and a Luger. T

hen she’s on the run in the neon nightmare of Hong Kong, dodging bullets in a karaoke bar while tracking another no-good employer/lover. What it all means is up for grabs, but for connoisseurs of sadomasochistic nastiness, it’s a must-see. (9:15 p.m. Fri., St. Anthony. 106 min.)