Emanuelle in Bangkok

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).

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.

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.

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***!

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...