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...

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.

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.