This is the first, and most likely the only Joe D'Amato film ever to hit Belgian television screens. Quite logical, since the titles on his repertoire go from nauseating horror films ("Anthropophagous", "Beyond the Darkness") to hardcore porno flicks ("Tarzan X") and sometimes even a combination of both ("Erotic Nights of the Living Dead", "Porno Holocaust"). D'Amato pretty much behaves himself here and follows the formula of the original "Black Emanuelle" film, released one year before, but that doesn't mean avid D'Amato-fans have to worry, as there still is an enormous amount of genuine sleaze to enjoy. "Emanuelle in Bangkok" has virtually no plot at all and you can't even fully believe the title, as our sexy protagonist's journey to the Far East is very brief and she only has contact with two Asian people (a masseuse and a bell-boy). The film most "crucial" sequences are set on a cruise ship and in Morocco, where she has an off/on relationship with a persistent archaeologist. I have no complaints, though, since the camera beautifully captures Laura Gemser's erotic adventures with men, women, couples and herself. Joe D'Amato's trademarks are bizarrely tinted sexual situations, and there's only one such sequence in this film, namely the Japanese stripper who puts ping-pong balls up her vagina. Weird
One aspect about "Emanuelle in Bangkok", as well as in the entire cycle, is downright brilliant and that's the music. Nico Fidenco's score is mesmerizing and, without exaggerating, at least ten times better than every other score that ever won an Oscar. The dazzling soundtrack alone makes "Emanuelle in Bangkok" a true cult classic that every fan of the genre will enjoy watching.
17 Reviews
Almost Silly Fun
Steve_Nyland3 March 2010
The first thing that struck me about EMANUELLE IN BANGKOK was Nico Fidenco's music score, a whistling, happy, bumbling little ditty that would be right at home on a YouTube video compilation of Tourette's Guy clips. Or maybe a toothpaste commercial, its stuck in my head now and fortunately for my sanity, its not bad. I'd whistle it for you if I could, and can't help but wonder if that's Alessandro Alessandroni doing his trademark thing there. He's the guy whistling on the old spaghetti western soundtracks, proof once again that while often derivative the Italians managed to create some new forms. The movies may often be cheap & boring, but they almost always have great musical scores.
I would paint this one into the same category. It looks pretty much like Joe D'amato took a sprawling vacation with some of his favorite stock players (Laura Gemser, her husband Gabrielle Tinti), a couple of Italian genre cinema leading males he maybe owed a favor to (Ivan Rassimov & my hero Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and a few sexy Euro body babes with no problems with nudity, group groping and the occasional half naked lesbian make-out with Ms. Gemser (Ely Galleani, Debra Berger, Gaby Bourgois). He brought along a camera, maybe a mistress to hold the scripts while somebody made sure there was enough light, and went about their touristy ways while filming a scene or two here & there as they traveled about.
Two scenes sort of spoil the fun, first another barbaric episode of Italian filmmakers using animal violence to fill some screen time, then an inexplicable sequence where Ms. Gemser is sexually assaulted by a mob of greaseballs who make a point to humiliate her while getting their jollies off. Inexplicable because afterward she seems quite at ease with herself and chats pleasantly with her attackers as if they had just met at a diner. Then again its all just a silly phallocentric fantasy really, about guys with unlimited means traveling exotic lands in the company of attractive women in their 20s whom they have random sex with, often playing erotic group games for grown ups & swapping partners, though the version I saw was strictly a softcore engagement. The most arousing display being a scene where the girls all get up, strip down to their panties and dance like a harem for an Arabian prince.
Or something like that, to tell the truth I was hardly paying attention to the story and frankly couldn't care less. Like a spaghetti western you watch stuff like this for the individual moments rather than the cumulative effect, and most of it passed quite pleasantly with the occasional raised eyebrow. Like the scene were Emanuelle entertains a crowd in a private club by dripping hot candle wax all over her magnificent, nude body. For all we know and given the way Joe D'amato worked, the whole film might have been just an excuse to put that up on the screen. It may not pass as entertainment for some, but for those two minutes this movie was the only thing I was thinking about.
4/10
I would paint this one into the same category. It looks pretty much like Joe D'amato took a sprawling vacation with some of his favorite stock players (Laura Gemser, her husband Gabrielle Tinti), a couple of Italian genre cinema leading males he maybe owed a favor to (Ivan Rassimov & my hero Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and a few sexy Euro body babes with no problems with nudity, group groping and the occasional half naked lesbian make-out with Ms. Gemser (Ely Galleani, Debra Berger, Gaby Bourgois). He brought along a camera, maybe a mistress to hold the scripts while somebody made sure there was enough light, and went about their touristy ways while filming a scene or two here & there as they traveled about.
Two scenes sort of spoil the fun, first another barbaric episode of Italian filmmakers using animal violence to fill some screen time, then an inexplicable sequence where Ms. Gemser is sexually assaulted by a mob of greaseballs who make a point to humiliate her while getting their jollies off. Inexplicable because afterward she seems quite at ease with herself and chats pleasantly with her attackers as if they had just met at a diner. Then again its all just a silly phallocentric fantasy really, about guys with unlimited means traveling exotic lands in the company of attractive women in their 20s whom they have random sex with, often playing erotic group games for grown ups & swapping partners, though the version I saw was strictly a softcore engagement. The most arousing display being a scene where the girls all get up, strip down to their panties and dance like a harem for an Arabian prince.
Or something like that, to tell the truth I was hardly paying attention to the story and frankly couldn't care less. Like a spaghetti western you watch stuff like this for the individual moments rather than the cumulative effect, and most of it passed quite pleasantly with the occasional raised eyebrow. Like the scene were Emanuelle entertains a crowd in a private club by dripping hot candle wax all over her magnificent, nude body. For all we know and given the way Joe D'amato worked, the whole film might have been just an excuse to put that up on the screen. It may not pass as entertainment for some, but for those two minutes this movie was the only thing I was thinking about.
4/10
One from my "lonely teenager" years
nickroosa19 August 2005
In the summer of 1995, Showtime aired this movie almost every night, after "Red Shoe Diaries" and usually around 1 AM. I thought then this was the strangest soft-core thing I've ever seen. Over the years, I've seen far more bizarre, but this one still remains memorable to me after all these years.
First off, the music. Bad '70s porno music meets Asian karaoke. Seriously. There are really only 2 songs here, and I don't know the names of them, so I'll give them names: "Like A Sailing Ship," which has a ship horn in its chorus ("TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"), and "I Wander Safe At Night," which is played most prominently during the big group drug/orgasm scene, perhaps the standout scene in this film: a bunch of people smoke pot (or some mind-altering drug), then get horny and get freaky. All to the strains of a bad guitar solo. This should be a requirement for all soft-core porn.
Laura Gemser is pretty hot, she could easily still stand out even today. Come to think of it, all the women here are not bad-looking at all. If you can stand the fact that a lot of George W.'s last name is in full force here (personal grooming wasn't in in 1976, kids), you might like the ladies.
"Emanuelle in Bangkok," a standout film from my lonely teenager years. I don't even remember the plot, and I don't care. Seeing this now brings back memories of me with Cool Ranch Doritos and a bottle of Pepsi, keeping the volume low so my parents wouldn't hear it, settling back to Showtime's late-night lineup, which included this film and "Red Shoe Diaries." Those were the days...
First off, the music. Bad '70s porno music meets Asian karaoke. Seriously. There are really only 2 songs here, and I don't know the names of them, so I'll give them names: "Like A Sailing Ship," which has a ship horn in its chorus ("TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"), and "I Wander Safe At Night," which is played most prominently during the big group drug/orgasm scene, perhaps the standout scene in this film: a bunch of people smoke pot (or some mind-altering drug), then get horny and get freaky. All to the strains of a bad guitar solo. This should be a requirement for all soft-core porn.
Laura Gemser is pretty hot, she could easily still stand out even today. Come to think of it, all the women here are not bad-looking at all. If you can stand the fact that a lot of George W.'s last name is in full force here (personal grooming wasn't in in 1976, kids), you might like the ladies.
"Emanuelle in Bangkok," a standout film from my lonely teenager years. I don't even remember the plot, and I don't care. Seeing this now brings back memories of me with Cool Ranch Doritos and a bottle of Pepsi, keeping the volume low so my parents wouldn't hear it, settling back to Showtime's late-night lineup, which included this film and "Red Shoe Diaries." Those were the days...
Tamer than most, but worth a look
lazarillo3 July 2007
This is the first "Black Emanuelle" film directed by Joe D'Amato and it actually resembles the first "Black Emanuelle" more than any of the more notorious and depraved films in series which D'Amato later directed. The movie doesn't have much of a plot, and more of it takes place in Casablanca than in Bangkok or the Orient, so both the English and Italian titles are pretty inaccurate. For the record, Emanuelle has sex with an archaeologist (played by Gemser's real-life husband Gabrielle Tinti), a female Thai masseuse, a male Thai bellboy, some swinging American Republicans (Ivan Rassimov and the lovely Ely Galeani), the entire (strangely all-European) contingent of the Thai king's bodyguards, a Thai customs official (after her passport is stolen), the Republican wife again in an airplane bathroom, the archaeologist and his new fiancée, the fiancée again along with a black dancer and an entire horde of horse-back-riding Arabs, and finally the lesbian daughter of the American consul in Casablanca (Debra Berger).
Most of these sex scenes are all pretty truncated, which may frustrate the hairy-palmed viewers out there, but the movies probably would have been six hours long otherwise. There's also a lack of the depravity we've come to expect from D'Amato aside from an obviously unstaged snake/mongoose fight and the scene where Emanuelle is "gang-raped" by the king's bodyguards, which she either enjoys or doesn't mind too much since she later takes her lover's fiancée off to dance naked in an Arab tent and get gang-banged again. These scenes though are really no different than the African village scene or the (literal)train scene in the first "Black Emanuelle", and they take place mostly off-screen anyway.
Still the girls are very pretty, the cinematography and natural scenery are appealing, the music ranges from execrable to enjoyably cheesy. And this is now paired with two (slightly) better "Black Emanuelle" movies in the new "Black Emanuelle's Box" DVD set, so check it out for yourself.
Most of these sex scenes are all pretty truncated, which may frustrate the hairy-palmed viewers out there, but the movies probably would have been six hours long otherwise. There's also a lack of the depravity we've come to expect from D'Amato aside from an obviously unstaged snake/mongoose fight and the scene where Emanuelle is "gang-raped" by the king's bodyguards, which she either enjoys or doesn't mind too much since she later takes her lover's fiancée off to dance naked in an Arab tent and get gang-banged again. These scenes though are really no different than the African village scene or the (literal)train scene in the first "Black Emanuelle", and they take place mostly off-screen anyway.
Still the girls are very pretty, the cinematography and natural scenery are appealing, the music ranges from execrable to enjoyably cheesy. And this is now paired with two (slightly) better "Black Emanuelle" movies in the new "Black Emanuelle's Box" DVD set, so check it out for yourself.
Emanuelle In Bangkok (Joe D' Amato, 1976) *1/2
Bunuel19768 September 2006
Notorious film director D' Amato's first entry in the "Black Emanuelle" series is somewhat better than its predecessor but, the version I watched on Italian TV is so sloppily trimmed that several sexy scenes end abruptly, thus making them quite senseless! Here Emanuelle attracts the attentions of a Thai Prince (Ivan Rassimov, of all people), her on-off archaeologist boyfriend (real-life husband Gabriele Tinti), a world-renowned historian and a shy Thai bell-boy, as well as 4(!) females - an Oriental masseuse, a repressed American tourist (played by the lovely Ely Galleani from A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN [1971] and BABA YAGA [1973]), Tinti's "official" schoolmarmy girlfriend and, most intriguingly, an American Consul's (possibly manic-depressive) daughter!
I say intriguingly because Emanuelle is shown really losing her head for the young, inexperienced girl (almost up to the point that she starts considering forsaking her hedonistic lifestyle) but, before you can say, "Copout!", she gets a call from her newspaper sending her off to Paris for another assignment!! By the way, towards the middle of the film, Emanuelle's Bangkok apartment gets broken into and she loses her passport and all her valuable rolls of film (apparently because she was getting too close to Prince Rassimov who has a coup d'etat on his mind) and, for good measure, there's some local color (opium smoking and sensuous dancing) and even animal cruelty (in the form of a bloody mongoose vs. cobra duel). What the f***!
I say intriguingly because Emanuelle is shown really losing her head for the young, inexperienced girl (almost up to the point that she starts considering forsaking her hedonistic lifestyle) but, before you can say, "Copout!", she gets a call from her newspaper sending her off to Paris for another assignment!! By the way, towards the middle of the film, Emanuelle's Bangkok apartment gets broken into and she loses her passport and all her valuable rolls of film (apparently because she was getting too close to Prince Rassimov who has a coup d'etat on his mind) and, for good measure, there's some local color (opium smoking and sensuous dancing) and even animal cruelty (in the form of a bloody mongoose vs. cobra duel). What the f***!
What a train wreck!
xnet959 December 2009
To say that this movie is disappointing would be the understatement of the year. It is truly one of the most unenjoyable movies I have ever seen, and I'm a big Laura Gemser fan. I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane or Apocalypse Now...
1. This movie lacks coherence, which I blame on the producers and the editors. It jumps all around and doesn't make much sense. For example, Emmanuelle is having sex with the prince after having smoked some opium (God, I wish it was that easy...) and then they cut to her going to take pictures of some mongoose cobra fight, which has no purpose other than gratuitous violence as the mongoose rips the eyes out of the cobra with his teeth. After this, she is back in her room, taking off her top with no continuity, no explanation. It's like they had this footage of the animal fight and they had to stick it in somewhere. It just doesn't add anything to the movie. It comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere.
2. The MUSIC IS HORRIBLE! It isn't just bad, annoying, and totally incongruous, it's totally WRONG beyond wrong. It's the kind of music they would play in the 60's or 70's while a mime and a clown interact on the streets of Paris. The only problem is this movie isn't set in Europe, it's set in exotic Asia featuring exotic looking Laura Gemser. The music is unforgivable.
3. THE MOVIE IS NOT EROTIC!! When I watch an Emmanuelle film, I want to see gorgeous Laura naked and having sex long enough so that my eyes can focus on the action. The sex scenes here are a jumbled mess with too many cut aways from the good stuff. There's no flow and these scenes are very short. By the time I see Laura's beautiful naked breasts, they've already cut away to some guy's face or a trip to take some pictures. The strip sequence in the Bedouin tent is a perfect example.
I think the thing that angers me the most about this film is the lost potential. They had a great asset in Laura Gemser and totally frittered it away. I've been watching all of Laura's films chronologically, and this has been the worst so far.
1. This movie lacks coherence, which I blame on the producers and the editors. It jumps all around and doesn't make much sense. For example, Emmanuelle is having sex with the prince after having smoked some opium (God, I wish it was that easy...) and then they cut to her going to take pictures of some mongoose cobra fight, which has no purpose other than gratuitous violence as the mongoose rips the eyes out of the cobra with his teeth. After this, she is back in her room, taking off her top with no continuity, no explanation. It's like they had this footage of the animal fight and they had to stick it in somewhere. It just doesn't add anything to the movie. It comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere.
2. The MUSIC IS HORRIBLE! It isn't just bad, annoying, and totally incongruous, it's totally WRONG beyond wrong. It's the kind of music they would play in the 60's or 70's while a mime and a clown interact on the streets of Paris. The only problem is this movie isn't set in Europe, it's set in exotic Asia featuring exotic looking Laura Gemser. The music is unforgivable.
3. THE MOVIE IS NOT EROTIC!! When I watch an Emmanuelle film, I want to see gorgeous Laura naked and having sex long enough so that my eyes can focus on the action. The sex scenes here are a jumbled mess with too many cut aways from the good stuff. There's no flow and these scenes are very short. By the time I see Laura's beautiful naked breasts, they've already cut away to some guy's face or a trip to take some pictures. The strip sequence in the Bedouin tent is a perfect example.
I think the thing that angers me the most about this film is the lost potential. They had a great asset in Laura Gemser and totally frittered it away. I've been watching all of Laura's films chronologically, and this has been the worst so far.
Emanuelle, this time in Bangkok
The_Void13 December 2007
I often enjoy a spot of hardcore porn, and in spite of that and the fact that these films star the beautiful Laura Gemser; I have to say that I'm not much of a fan of Emanuelle films. Emanuelle flicks tend to be very similar to one another, and this is yet another film with only a theme to differentiate it from the rest of the series. The theme this time is that Emanuelle has found herself in Bangkok (seems like a suitable place...) for whatever reason, and naturally it's an excuse for her to engage in lots of sex with men, women and couples. The film is directed by Joe D'Amato, so as you might expect; sleaze comes as standard, and the film isn't lacking in that department. The sex scenes aren't particularly bad, but after seeing a fair amount of this stuff; I can't say that this film features anything that most of the others don't. The plot is practically non-existent as you would expect, and the sex scenes really aren't interesting enough to carry the whole film. There's not really a great deal that can be said about this one; it's not the worst Emanuelle film or the best, it's just an average one and I can't really recommend seeing it.
Another entry for the Goddess
haildevilman28 June 2006
The exotic locale gave this a bit more to work with.
The obvious titillation scenes seemed to be the main point here. (Loved the massage scene.) Then big Joe just found ways to connect them. That's what he did best.
Gabriel Tinti, (Goddess Gemser's real life, and late, husband) makes an appearance as her paramour here. As he did in many of these films. He was a decent actor actually. I like seeing him as the straight man in her life.
I liked seeing Ivan Rassimov as the prince. He really played a great authority type. It's strange that he and Gemser didn't star in more films together seeing as they did a lot of similar work.
Call this a soft x film pretending to be a documentary.
The obvious titillation scenes seemed to be the main point here. (Loved the massage scene.) Then big Joe just found ways to connect them. That's what he did best.
Gabriel Tinti, (Goddess Gemser's real life, and late, husband) makes an appearance as her paramour here. As he did in many of these films. He was a decent actor actually. I like seeing him as the straight man in her life.
I liked seeing Ivan Rassimov as the prince. He really played a great authority type. It's strange that he and Gemser didn't star in more films together seeing as they did a lot of similar work.
Call this a soft x film pretending to be a documentary.
An Exotic Movie Carried By Beautiful Music
josephbrando20 March 2015
I cannot understand the reviews here on IMDb for this film but I imagine its from those Joe D'Amato fans who just want hardcore sex and gore - the stuff he basically did for paychecks in between the movies he put his heart into, like this one which is absolutely lovely, fun, thought-provoking and sexy. Laura Gemser stars in her second foray as "Black Emanuelle", this time heading off to Bangkok for more sexual and social exploration, hopping from one adventure to another, and one person to another, but remaining rather tame in the pornographic sense. If that's your game, just go rent a porn. But if you are looking for a soft-core adventure with plenty of carefree mentality, this is it. Joe D'Amato pleases the eyes with stunning cinematography and lush tropical locales. But surpassing even all these merits is the mesmerizingly beautiful score from Nico Fidenco - it is absolutely breathtaking and makes all the images on screen melt together with the music for a rare cinematic experience. Well done!
God bless Laura Gemser
BandSAboutMovies19 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Italian movie logic: Emanuelle in Bangkok is the sequel to Black Emanuelle and Black Emanuelle 2 is not.
Photojournalist Emanuelle (as always Laura Gemser) and her archaeologist friend Roberto (Gemser's husband Gabriele Tinti) are on a series of journeys, whether it's to meet a Thai king or explode caves in Casablanca or meet a special masseuse or being too close to Prince Sanit (Ivan Rassimov) or Roberto forcing her to choose between him and a female lover Debra (Debra Berger, who was in the Tobe Hooper version of Invaders from Mars).
Like all the D'Amato Emanuelle movies, these films go from narrative to travelogue to mondo, with simulated moments of lovemaking standing in stark contrast to real moments of horrifying violence, like a battle between a mongoose and a snake. And that ping pong trick that other movies joke about? This movie has it.
Yet it's also a movie that synchronizes pistons on a ship with the first lovemaking scene like high art and has a heroine that refuses to be possessed no matter how many men try to destroy her, breaking hearts and remaining independent and perhaps it's my hope for a better world and my innocence that I see something life-affirming in the Black Emanuelle films, a series of movies devoted to softcore lovemaking interspersed with brutality. But hey - that's me.
Photojournalist Emanuelle (as always Laura Gemser) and her archaeologist friend Roberto (Gemser's husband Gabriele Tinti) are on a series of journeys, whether it's to meet a Thai king or explode caves in Casablanca or meet a special masseuse or being too close to Prince Sanit (Ivan Rassimov) or Roberto forcing her to choose between him and a female lover Debra (Debra Berger, who was in the Tobe Hooper version of Invaders from Mars).
Like all the D'Amato Emanuelle movies, these films go from narrative to travelogue to mondo, with simulated moments of lovemaking standing in stark contrast to real moments of horrifying violence, like a battle between a mongoose and a snake. And that ping pong trick that other movies joke about? This movie has it.
Yet it's also a movie that synchronizes pistons on a ship with the first lovemaking scene like high art and has a heroine that refuses to be possessed no matter how many men try to destroy her, breaking hearts and remaining independent and perhaps it's my hope for a better world and my innocence that I see something life-affirming in the Black Emanuelle films, a series of movies devoted to softcore lovemaking interspersed with brutality. But hey - that's me.
overlooked d'amato film
dogcow10 March 2001
This is a suprisingly good film. The photography is good, it seems to have some decent production values, the score is excellent, and the editing is slick. It outclasses many of D'Amato's hardcore films and the erotic scenes are more hot than anything you can see late night on cinemax. An overlooked D'Amato/Gemser classic I say.
Sleepwalking through Bangkok...
JohnnyOldSoul5 July 2002
Warning: Spoilers
"Um...ok." is what I heard myself say quite often during this picture. This sequel to Emanuelle nera (1974) is basically just a travelogue as Laura Gemser goes to and fro from place to place and in the process destroys two marriages and smokes opium with Ivan Rassimov. Yep, that's all there is to it.
Gabriele Tinti actually comes off best, and the sex scenes between he and Laura Gemser are quite nice. I was confused by Emanuelle's "struggle" with her lesbian feelings for Debra Berger's character. I remember seeing her have sex with two women in the last film.
Ely Galleani is her usual smiling self (I've never seen her not smile in a film) and Ivan Rassimov has those sexy eyes, and of course Laura Gemser is gorgeous as ever, but this film is just kinda a time-passer. Now, the series would reach it's pinnacle soon with "Emanuelle Around the World," but that's another story...
EDIT (June 2007): On reflection, having seen this film again after several years, I have to admit that I have a new appreciation for how the romance between Emanuelle and Debra was handled. It's really quite sweet. Emanuelle's struggle isn't with feeling attracted to a woman, but feeling stronger emotions, thus she flees India, back to her old ways. If you watch their scenes in Italian with the English subs on (on the Severin DVD release,) the dialogue between Emanuelle and Debra is a bit different, and more moving. It makes the bathtub scene much more significant, rather than just a random moment of titillation as it appears in the English dub.
Gabriele Tinti actually comes off best, and the sex scenes between he and Laura Gemser are quite nice. I was confused by Emanuelle's "struggle" with her lesbian feelings for Debra Berger's character. I remember seeing her have sex with two women in the last film.
Ely Galleani is her usual smiling self (I've never seen her not smile in a film) and Ivan Rassimov has those sexy eyes, and of course Laura Gemser is gorgeous as ever, but this film is just kinda a time-passer. Now, the series would reach it's pinnacle soon with "Emanuelle Around the World," but that's another story...
EDIT (June 2007): On reflection, having seen this film again after several years, I have to admit that I have a new appreciation for how the romance between Emanuelle and Debra was handled. It's really quite sweet. Emanuelle's struggle isn't with feeling attracted to a woman, but feeling stronger emotions, thus she flees India, back to her old ways. If you watch their scenes in Italian with the English subs on (on the Severin DVD release,) the dialogue between Emanuelle and Debra is a bit different, and more moving. It makes the bathtub scene much more significant, rather than just a random moment of titillation as it appears in the English dub.
One night in Bangkok (and many nights everywhere else!)
Woodyanders8 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Famous journalist and carnally insatiable hedonist Emanuelle (the always delectable Laura Gemser at her most insanely desirable) goes to Bangkok for an assignment. Emanuelle not only embarks on her usual exploration of sensual pleasure, but also has her passport stolen and gets gang raped by a bunch of slimy creeps. Director Joe D'Amato, working from a blithely sensuous and eventful script by Maria Pia Fusco, relates the entertainingly ridiculous story at a steady pace, makes fine and evocative use of the exotic globe-trotting locations, and, naturally, crams this baby with loads of delicious bare distaff skin and scorching simulated soft-core couplings. The nice cast of dependable Italian sleaze cinema stalwarts keeps the movie bubbling along: Gabriele Tinti as handsome, but vulgar archaeologist Roberto, Ivan Rassimov as the suave Prince Sonit, Ely Galleani as ditsy and cheerful American tourist Frances, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Frances' amiable husband Jimmy, Venantino Venantini as helpful ambassador David, Koike Mahoco as enticing masseuse Gee, and Debra Berger as sweet and fragile teenager Debra, who understandably develops a heavy Sappho crush on Emanuelle. A nude massage set piece, a racy nightclub strip act involving ping-pong balls, and a soapy lesbian bathtub frolic rate as the definite arousing highlights. D'Amato's slick cinematography gives the picture a bright and sumptuous look. Nico Fidenco's funky throbbing score hits the right-on groovy spot (the giddy'n'goofy recurring theme song "Like a Sailing Ship" is an absolute dippy hoot!). Good sexy fun.
consumer sex culture does Orientalism
jaibo26 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The first Black Emanuelle collaboration between Laura Gemser and her Svengali Joe D'Amato is merely a taste of the shocking things to come in the likes of Emanuelle in America and Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. Emanuelle in Bangkok is a kind of dry run, with Gemser repeating her Black Emanuelle character from the first, non-D'amato film and D'amato finding his feet with this new character and genre he's lucked onto.
Yet there are signs of things to come. The bulk of the film is sexual travelogue, with Emanuelle exploring Bangkok and then Casablanca, sightseeing and shagging but some of the sights she sees are not quite what they recommend in the Visitor's Guide to Bangkok (a cockfight, a snake loosing a bloody battle with a mongoose, a dancer who has a speciality act with ping-pong balls , guess where) and the sex becomes dangerous, as Emanuelle is gang raped by a battalion of the king's bodyguards. This last scene is the film's most contentious, as Emanuelle lies back, thinks of previous exhortations to use her body for her own pleasure and ends up on friendly terms with her assailants. The scene could be seen as the first real throwing down of the gauntlet by D'amato in an Emanuelle film, with the heroine taken into places she and we never imagined by her post-60s free love philosophising, and also there's the curious effect of Gemser's performance, or rather lack of one. She walks through the entire film as if sleepwalking, greeting all things good or bad with the same blank affectless nonchalance, a kind of erotic robot either without emotions or with them so deeply suppressed as to suggest some past trauma. There's something about D'Amato's vision of Emanuelle which is both a lure and a fright, as we're compelled by her freedom as much as appalled by her lack of passionate engagement with, well, anything (including sex, where she invariably just goes through the motions).
My suspicion is that D'Amato had very conflicted feelings about the sexual freedoms which arose in the post-60s consumer West, a fear and fascination that sex can lead not to ecstasy and freedom by dehumanisation and death. It is no mistake that he cuts from Prince Sanit's sexual philosophising about giving yourself over to pleasure to the death of the snake at the claws and teeth of the mongoose, the "petit mort" alluded to by the cutting.
Emanuelle in Bangkok also works as a kind of satirical critique of consumer tourism, with exotic backdrops being used as a sex-filled break (as so many Westerners have used the real Bangkok); yet the real world of politics and human jealousy keeps interrupting, exposing Emanuelle's travels as the banal escapism they really are. The plot, like homeless and rootless modern man, lurches from one country to the next, one meaningless encounter to another, one short-lived and doomed relationship to its successor and it is in this much criticised plotlessness that the film makes its point. D'amato frames the story with two episodes from the relationship between Emanuelle and her erstwhile lover Roberto (played by Gemser's real-life husband Gabriele Tinti), the first setting out the plan to enjoy each other for the time being but not get bogged down in ideas of fidelity and love, the last showing their dream ruined by his foul-mouthed jealous homophobia about her love for a young female artist; the idea seems to be that Emanuelle cannot escape from the old ways of possessiveness, male chauvinism and all that messy stuff, but she'll wander on regardless. What we are meant to make of all this D'Amato, like a true democrat, leaves entirely up to us
Yet there are signs of things to come. The bulk of the film is sexual travelogue, with Emanuelle exploring Bangkok and then Casablanca, sightseeing and shagging but some of the sights she sees are not quite what they recommend in the Visitor's Guide to Bangkok (a cockfight, a snake loosing a bloody battle with a mongoose, a dancer who has a speciality act with ping-pong balls , guess where) and the sex becomes dangerous, as Emanuelle is gang raped by a battalion of the king's bodyguards. This last scene is the film's most contentious, as Emanuelle lies back, thinks of previous exhortations to use her body for her own pleasure and ends up on friendly terms with her assailants. The scene could be seen as the first real throwing down of the gauntlet by D'amato in an Emanuelle film, with the heroine taken into places she and we never imagined by her post-60s free love philosophising, and also there's the curious effect of Gemser's performance, or rather lack of one. She walks through the entire film as if sleepwalking, greeting all things good or bad with the same blank affectless nonchalance, a kind of erotic robot either without emotions or with them so deeply suppressed as to suggest some past trauma. There's something about D'Amato's vision of Emanuelle which is both a lure and a fright, as we're compelled by her freedom as much as appalled by her lack of passionate engagement with, well, anything (including sex, where she invariably just goes through the motions).
My suspicion is that D'Amato had very conflicted feelings about the sexual freedoms which arose in the post-60s consumer West, a fear and fascination that sex can lead not to ecstasy and freedom by dehumanisation and death. It is no mistake that he cuts from Prince Sanit's sexual philosophising about giving yourself over to pleasure to the death of the snake at the claws and teeth of the mongoose, the "petit mort" alluded to by the cutting.
Emanuelle in Bangkok also works as a kind of satirical critique of consumer tourism, with exotic backdrops being used as a sex-filled break (as so many Westerners have used the real Bangkok); yet the real world of politics and human jealousy keeps interrupting, exposing Emanuelle's travels as the banal escapism they really are. The plot, like homeless and rootless modern man, lurches from one country to the next, one meaningless encounter to another, one short-lived and doomed relationship to its successor and it is in this much criticised plotlessness that the film makes its point. D'amato frames the story with two episodes from the relationship between Emanuelle and her erstwhile lover Roberto (played by Gemser's real-life husband Gabriele Tinti), the first setting out the plan to enjoy each other for the time being but not get bogged down in ideas of fidelity and love, the last showing their dream ruined by his foul-mouthed jealous homophobia about her love for a young female artist; the idea seems to be that Emanuelle cannot escape from the old ways of possessiveness, male chauvinism and all that messy stuff, but she'll wander on regardless. What we are meant to make of all this D'Amato, like a true democrat, leaves entirely up to us
Mindless Softcore Fare
Rapeman1314 December 2008
Emanuelle in Bangkok is the second entry in the Black Emanuelle series begun by Bitto Albertini then continued on into infamy by Joe D'Amato.
Laura Gemser returns as the intrepid globetrotting reporter Emanuelle who is sent on a mission to Bangkok to interview the King's nephew. She is accompanied to Bangkok by her on-again-off-again lover Roberto (Gemsers real-life husband Gabriele Tinti) who is on his way to begin an archaeology dig in Morocco.
Emanuelle never quite gets her interview as she has her passport & photography equipment stolen then is brutally gang-raped by a group of thugs employed by the government, so she decides to join Roberto in Morocco. Not having a passport isn't a problem, she just f@cks an airport official for a free pass.
Once in Morocco Emanuelle discovers Roberto is now engaged to an English woman, so they all decide to engage in some group sex, which seems to straighten everything out. Soon Emanuelle falls madly in love with the daughter of an American ambassador and spends the rest of her days either involved in some in lesbian bubble bath action or f@cking Roberto and/or any other man who crosses her path.
Being still early in the series, there is less of the sleaze and nastiness that some of the other films are so well known for, basically it's a sexy travelogue piece. Emanuelle is inhibition-free and generous with her body so pretty much every dude she meets gets to have a go.
A couple of notable scenes include: a sequence of 'natural' animal violence where a Shrew-like creature fights a cobra, and wins. The fully-clothed gang-rape where afterwards Emanuelle hangs out and chats cheerfully with her assailants, and a Bangkok stripper performing the notorious ping-pong ball trick.
Ultimately this isn't D'Amato's best Emanuelle film but if you're looking for some mindless (and often dull) softcore fare then check this out, otherwise I'd suggest going for either Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals or Emanuelle Around the World (XXX version).
Laura Gemser returns as the intrepid globetrotting reporter Emanuelle who is sent on a mission to Bangkok to interview the King's nephew. She is accompanied to Bangkok by her on-again-off-again lover Roberto (Gemsers real-life husband Gabriele Tinti) who is on his way to begin an archaeology dig in Morocco.
Emanuelle never quite gets her interview as she has her passport & photography equipment stolen then is brutally gang-raped by a group of thugs employed by the government, so she decides to join Roberto in Morocco. Not having a passport isn't a problem, she just f@cks an airport official for a free pass.
Once in Morocco Emanuelle discovers Roberto is now engaged to an English woman, so they all decide to engage in some group sex, which seems to straighten everything out. Soon Emanuelle falls madly in love with the daughter of an American ambassador and spends the rest of her days either involved in some in lesbian bubble bath action or f@cking Roberto and/or any other man who crosses her path.
Being still early in the series, there is less of the sleaze and nastiness that some of the other films are so well known for, basically it's a sexy travelogue piece. Emanuelle is inhibition-free and generous with her body so pretty much every dude she meets gets to have a go.
A couple of notable scenes include: a sequence of 'natural' animal violence where a Shrew-like creature fights a cobra, and wins. The fully-clothed gang-rape where afterwards Emanuelle hangs out and chats cheerfully with her assailants, and a Bangkok stripper performing the notorious ping-pong ball trick.
Ultimately this isn't D'Amato's best Emanuelle film but if you're looking for some mindless (and often dull) softcore fare then check this out, otherwise I'd suggest going for either Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals or Emanuelle Around the World (XXX version).
Apt Title
DesiMaal13 September 1999
The title says it all!! There is no story, just lovemaking scenes at regular frequency as the scene shifts from the Orient to the Gulf with a cruise thrown in between. The only saving grace for the film are the Husband & Wife couple of Gabriele Tinti & Laura Gemser.
Weak
Michael_Elliott26 February 2008
Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Joe D'Amato's first stab in the "Black Emanuelle" series with Laura Gemser in her second stint as the character. In this film, Emanuelle travels to Bangkok to get an interview with their King but she spends most of her time screwing any man or woman she can get her hands on. This film doesn't contain the sleaze factor that future D'Amato/Gemser films have but there's still some fairly naughty stuff here including one woman who sticks a golf ball up her vagina and then blows it out. Animal lovers will also want to stay away as there's a disgusting scene with a snake and muskrat fighting it out to the (real) death. As for the rest of the film, it's amazing that D'Amato would make so many softcore and hardcore adult films (this one is soft) and yet never manage to capture anything remotely erotic ala other directors in the field like Franco and Rollin. Gemser is a hot piece of ass but D'Amato does nothing with that beauty and the non-erotic moments is what really kills this thing. The so called story is boring enough and while there's plenty of sex and nudity, this too gets boring after a while. This film was followed by Emanuelle in America, which also features Pedro the horse. Now that film and star get an ultimate yuck.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Joe D'Amato's first stab in the "Black Emanuelle" series with Laura Gemser in her second stint as the character. In this film, Emanuelle travels to Bangkok to get an interview with their King but she spends most of her time screwing any man or woman she can get her hands on. This film doesn't contain the sleaze factor that future D'Amato/Gemser films have but there's still some fairly naughty stuff here including one woman who sticks a golf ball up her vagina and then blows it out. Animal lovers will also want to stay away as there's a disgusting scene with a snake and muskrat fighting it out to the (real) death. As for the rest of the film, it's amazing that D'Amato would make so many softcore and hardcore adult films (this one is soft) and yet never manage to capture anything remotely erotic ala other directors in the field like Franco and Rollin. Gemser is a hot piece of ass but D'Amato does nothing with that beauty and the non-erotic moments is what really kills this thing. The so called story is boring enough and while there's plenty of sex and nudity, this too gets boring after a while. This film was followed by Emanuelle in America, which also features Pedro the horse. Now that film and star get an ultimate yuck.
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