The rambling philosophical ruminations on erotica that made up such a large part of the first movie (and frankly made no sense whatsoever) are absent here in favor of much more familiar explorations of strange sensual experiences (other women, men, groups, unusual settings, even acupuncture and massage) typical of a 70s erotic novel. Just Jaekin, director of the first movie, dismissed this film (along with the rest of the series) as unnecessarily tacked on junk, but the formula of the first movie is faithfully followed here and the results are quite watchable if not to be taken too seriously. Steamy Thailand creates an effectively exotic hothouse setting for the languorous writhing that takes up much of the movie's running time and everything looks very colorful and lush thanks to an excellent cinematographic eye for tropical images. The result is somewhat less entertaining than it sounds. It's a soft-core travelogue with the beautiful but rather dull to watch Sylvia Kristel front and center for most of the film. I have never been convinced that the woman could act, and though she looks great, she seems rather overburdened to carry a whole film for 100 minutes. Something about her performance is never completely convincing or in the moment. Nevertheless, the movie looks good, and has moments of true erotic power - something many others in this genre fail to attain - making it far from the worst choice a viewer might make when looking for an erotic adventure film.
Review of Emmanuelle II
