JESS FRANCO: FROM BANGKOK WITH BULLETS (1985)
TRIP TO BANGKOK, COFFIN INCLUDED (1985)
& BANGKOK, DATE WITH DEATH (1985)
Severin's 2-film Blu-ray set Jess Franco: From Bangkok collects two of the prolific Spanish director's lesser seen, and previously quite difficult to see, eurospy/action thrillers. Trip To Bangkok, Coffin Included and Bangkok, Date with Death, were both filmed back-to-back in 1984 and released in 1985. These film see Franco moving away from his usual horror and erotic exploitation fare for a more adventure-set pair of flicks. Both are set in Bangkok, but shot in Franco's homeland of Spain, both featuring exterior footage shot in Thailand after Franco sent cinematographer Juan Soler to Thailand to shoot a few days on his own, which in and of itself is pretty novel for Franco, typically he would just shoot in Spain without even having establishing shots from the actual country the film were set in. The 2-disc set from Severin is well-stocked with extras, we get over two hours of newly produced bonus features, including two lengthy appreciations from Stephen Thrower, two more entries in the long-running In The Land of Franco location visit featurettes with Thrower and special guests, plus an interview with Film Scholar Dr. Álex Mendíbil and Film Writer/Assistant Director Carlos Aguilar, with both films making their worldwide Blu-ray debuts, now scanned and restored in 4K from the OCN.
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Howard Vernon
In Trip To Bangkok, Coffin Included (1985), which is very loosely based on an Edgar Wallace story, cantankerous British by way of Ireland agent Colonel Daniel J. Blimp (Franco favorite Howard Vernon, How To Seduce A Virgin), with a wonderfully wild moustache, arrives in Bangkok to get to the bottom of a series of political assassinations carried out by blind men. There he teams up with younger Bangkok cop, the handsome Philip Sanders (José Llamas, Angel of Death), to to get to the bottom of it, eventually discovering it is connected to a creepy cult leader, the blind Professor Tao (Trino Treves, Bahía blanca), who has very real psychic abilities.
It's a colorful spy-thriller with exotic locations, shot in Madrid with inserts of actual footage from Bangkok we get some tasty looking local scenery and locations, gorgeous women- at least one of them naked, and some fun spy/assassin machinations with some ropey make-up effects to create the visage of blinded men. While the plot has some interesting elements Franco's style is a bit lackadaisical and slowly paced, with not enough kinetic energy to it to be effective, plus the lack of voyeuristic eroticisms is a bit of a disappointment. Speaking of which, where the heck is Fraco muse Lina Romay? Well, she shows up in a blink and you'll miss it cameo, and it's nothing scintillating, so temper your expectations. That's not to say it's not fun, it is, especially if you're a Franco-phile, we get the zoom-in, the languid artsy shots, and a couple of fun Franco regular like Howard Vernon and José Llamas, they have good chemistry so we get some enjoyable buddy-cop shenanigans, and I love Vernon face-making here, he gets to mug it up quite a bit, and that unkept moustache might be worth the price of admission.
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes 41 Seconds
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay
Next up on the crime-spree docket is Franco's Bangkok, Date with Death (1985), this one kicks up the action a bit, less a spy-thriller and more of a gumshoe-thriller We have world-famous private eye Panama Joe (Christian Borck) who is hired by millionaire (Eduardo Fajardo, The Killer Must Kill Again) to track down his daughter Marta Flanagan (Helena Garret, The Beast and the Magic Sword), who has been kidnapped by a group of cutthroats, lead by Aminia (Lina Romay (Hot Night of Linda) and Akuto. Marta's wealthy boyfriend Riao (José Llamas, Angel of Death) sets out to rescue Aminia himself, getting caught up with the cutthroats, meanwhile gumshoe Panama Joe does his thing. Feeling underpaid, Aminia and Akuto unwisely decide to double and then triple-cross their sleazy playboy employer, Malko (Antonio Mayans, Night of Open Sex), which proves fatal for both. Again, there's some interesting ideas here, but it meanders wildly, but we get attractive locations in madrid standing in for Bangkok, as well as some actual insert footage shot in Bangkok, so it's colorful and exotic, we get beaches, nightlife and seaside vitas, but again the violence and erotica is nearly non-existent. We do get some scenes of Romay, looking plump and rounded in her middle years here in a leopard print leotard, shaking her booty in front of a Decap automated dance organ, which to be honest was the most interesting thing about the film, not so much Romay shaking her plus-sized ass or getting shot in the back, but the automated orchestrated music machine behind her was very cool, I found myself going down the rabbit-hole of researching it after watching this flick. The second most interesting thing about this is recognizing just how bad Franco was at editing action scenes, it was certainly not his forte. Evidenced by the penning scene of the kidnapping of Marta from a yachty, everything about it is preposterous, everything. Then, a king fu fight on a scenic beach is a total disaster, missed punches, kicks that's don't connect, oof, it's bad. So what's good? Honestly not much, the few interesting kernels are squandered, and then it just falls apart, it's a hot mess. I did quite like Christian Borck as the world-famous gumshoe Panama Joe, love the name, but it turns out this is the only movie credit for him.
Audio/Video: Both of the Franco flicks have been scanned in 4K from the OCN, they both look filmic with tight-knit grain fine detail and textures look wonderful, colors are splendid, and black levels are very pleasing. The sources are in very nice shape, there's some minor blemishing evident in spots, but overall i was quite surprised how fantastic these spy-thrillers look on Blu-ray, with modest depth and clarity. Audio comes by way of Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, the Spanish dialogue is never hard to discern, music cues sound wonderful as well.
Extras for Trip To Bankok, Coffin included start off with the 19-min Filmmaking On The Run – Interview With Film Writer/Bit Player/Assistant Director Carlos Aguilar, he describes this as Jess Franco attempting to make a higher caliber film, even striking a script for it which was unusual, and basing it on an an Edgar Wallace character, Agent Sanders, noting the plot similarities with Franco's Attack of the Robots. He notes that Franco originally wrote the role for his frequent musical collaborator Daniel White, but gave it to Howard Vernon in the end. Vernon never got to read the script and had to deliver his lines in Spanish, which he did not speak well. He also points out that Franco regulars Lina Romay and Antonio Mayans were notably not in the film, though Romay has a brief blind-and-you'll-miss-it onscreen cameo. He goes onto describe the cash-strapped shoot in May '84 as "horrific", a very stressful experience, with Franco funding it himself. He also tells tales of Panther Squad being filmed at the same motel and some production weirdness between the two productions.
Next is the 29-min Colonel Blimp In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco, who speaks of how these two films were made back to back, that it was a return to crime thrillers for Franco, and just where Franco's career was at in '84. Next is the 18-min In The Land Of Franco Part 14, the latest installment of the long-running location visit series from Thrower/Severin, with Stephen Thrower, actor Antonio Mayans, and actress Katja Bienert visiting various filming locations.
Extras on disc two include the 25-min Carrara In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco, which is another candid and astute "appreciation:" of the film chock full of production notes and tidbits that made me enjoy the flick quite a bit more, then onto the 36-min Bangkok Back To Back – Interview With Film Scholar Dr. Álex Mendíbil - not well known, working with Golden Films who have him much freedom, the end of the script classification, beginning of a new era, the casts and production issues faced during the shoot. Last but certainly not least is the 16-min In The Land Of Franco Part 15 featuring Stephen Thrower, actor Antonio Mayans, and actress Katja Bienert. Watching these wonderful excursions to Spain the past few years on these Severin releases has really made me want to charter a trip to Spain when I next get the chance to travel, it's truly a gorgeous place.
The 2-disc Blu-ray release arrives in a dual-hub black keepcase housing the disc, we get a single-sided wrap with cool illustrated artwork. This release also includes a Slipcover with new artwork by artists Drazen Kozjan
Special Features:
Disc 1: TRIP TO BANGKOK, COFFIN INCLUDED:
- Filmmaking On The Run – Interview With Film Writer/Bit Player/Assistant Director Carlos Aguilar (19:23)
- Colonel Blimp In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco (28:82)
- In The Land Of Franco Part 14 (18:20)
Disc 2: BANGKOK, DATE WITH DEATH:
- Carrara In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco (24:47)
- Bangkok Back To Back – Interview With Film Scholar Dr. Álex Mendíbil (35:23)
- In The Land Of Franco Part 15 (15:34)
Neither of these are top-tier Jess Franco flicks for me, but the former obscurity of these rarities combined with the fun, albeit half-cocked euro spy/crime thriller action, make these rather entertaining curios from the prolific Spanish director. Severin have really gone all-out for these Franco flicks on Blu-ray with terrific, colorful scans, and oodles of tasty extras, if you are a Franco-fan and are even a little bit curious I say just jump in, you won't regret buying this set.
Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-ray:
TRIP TO BANGKOK, COFFIN INCLUDED
BANGKOK: DATE WITH DEATH
Buy it!
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