Black Emanuelle en Orient

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.

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.

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.

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).

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***!