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In Bangkok, French agent Rick is murdered, carrying a most powerful
biological weapon with him. Now both the French Secret service and
gangster boss Rita are after the thing, which they all believe to be with
Rick's girlfriend, the prostitute Rita (Yoko). The Secret Service sends
its top agent Roger, while Rita sends her top agent Claudine, and Claudine
is to put Eva onto a ship to France and to murder Roger. She manages the
first part admirably, even winning Eva's trust, but Roger evades her
thugs, and so they all go back to France to await Eva's arrival.
But Eva exits the boat pre-maturely, swims ashore and hides in a
freighttrain, taking her away from her pursuers. Eventually, Claudine
picks up her trace, in exchange for the present from Rick, which
she believes to be the tube containing the biological weapon ... but
actually, it's just Rick's photo. Claudine soon believes Eva that she
doesn't have the tube, and after a change of heart she promises to help
her escape, even from Rita's gang - but soon enough, Rita and company have
caught up with them, made them their captives, and soon enough, Eva is
tied up in the nude and tortured, much to the dismay of Claudine, who
feels she has betrayed the girl.
Roger has meanwhile picked up the trace of the girl with the help of
dog Rudy, when out of nowhere appears - Rick, who only faked his own death
to shake his pursuers. And after Rick learns where Eva is kept, he shoots
Roger dead ...
In the finale, Rick arrives at Rita's house, shoots dead everybody
about and frees Eva. Then he confesses to her that he made her bait for
both Rita's gangsters and the Secret Service on purpose to sell his tube
to a foreign power undisturbed. After the confession, he prepares to shoot
Eva too, but is suddenly attacked by dog Rudy (the last Secret Service man
standing). Eva picks up Rick's gun and shoots him dead ...
This action/espionage film is quite a departure for Jean Rollin, who is
more at home at lyrical, macabre and erotic tales ... and indeed,
with Les Trottoirs de Bangkok he seems to be a fish out of water:
The action scenes are rather sloppily directed (and not at all helped by a
miniscule budget), suspense sequences are (too) few and far between, and
the whole film seriously lacks decent pacing. That's not to say the film
is all bad, it still has Rollin's typical lyrical shots (that seem
somewhat out of place here), and some of the comicbook plottwists and pulp
mainstays are easy to love, but as a whole one just can#t help feeling
that Rollin should stick to what he does best, make lyrical horror tales
...
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