made with
sorry for the mistakes!
Les Trottoirs de Bangkok
No ties, no forcing, only the freedom desire, to do something for fun.
And it’s what does Jean Rollin in this 1984 film as well as make
a clean sweep of all his best ideas. Poetic images, the care of
cinematography, the metaphorical and long silences, here there is
nothing. Nothing at all. And we pass by the slowness of his horror at
the speed of action movies.
So, we must say that this film is really bad and boring. A poor
direction, a bad cinematography and long moments of erotic dances (and
even a fight scene in the mud) are added to a cast not experienced.
Guns and shooting dead collapsing badly, a long sample of things done
in a hurry and without care.
The plot as the genre requires seeking the hard way but added woes to the already poor production.
But despite everything, we appreciate the story behind this work, that
of a man who runs away from everything he has done in past seeks
happiness. This is "Les trottoirs Bangkok" ie "Sidewalks of Bangkok" a
liberating film for the director, a film that has brought him serenity
behind the camera.
As always stressed by problems of his previous movie o"La morte
vivante" Rollin is thrown into a work with a very small budget and that
often lives in improvisation. A slight turn that maybe wanted to be
even comic, made by moments of "guerrilla filmmaking" and especially of
great-fun during filming.
Rollin also find a great friendship with the cast, especially with the
protagonist Yoko, to the point of thinking about a movie with her and
Brigitte Lahaie but it will never be done.
With Claude Becognee as cinematographer and Lionel Wallman producer,
two faithful friend, he shot often without permits and in secret, for
example in the neighborhood of the Place d'Italie in Paris, the
Chinatown , near the Champs-Élysées and out of sight of
guards of the railway.
The plot is about as absurd and unwatchable. A French secret agent is
killed in Bangkok after stealing a powerful bacterial virus. But his
killers didn’t find the object. Apparently he could have given it
to Eva a prostitute and stripper. So both the French secret services,
and enemies with a terrorist as leader, try to catch the woman, take
her to France and take possession of the weapon.
Betrayals, counter betrayals in a story that is uninspiring. There is
also a person that should be an Eastern, but is a European actor.
However appreciable the performance of the protagonist Yoko, who is at
her side, finds Françoise Blanchard and Jean-Pierre Bouyxou.
