Perfect cast and a good story

Admirable film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

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.

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.

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.

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.