Overview: In 1985, writer/director Jess Franco briefly stepped away from horror and erotica to focus on several adventure thrillers that combined elements of his earlier Eurospy and Fu Manchu hits with his sardonic wit and love for exotic settings.

But having no budget for foreign locales, he instead sent cinematographer Juan Soler to Thailand to shoot a few days of exteriors which became the foundation for two of Uncle Jess’ most surprising – and rarely-seen – Spanish productions of the decade: In The Worldwide Blu-ray Premiere of TRIP TO BANGKOK, COFFIN INCLUDED, Francoverse legend Howard Vernon stars as a cantankerous British agent on the trail of a creepy cult leader.

In The Worldwide Disc Premiere of BANGKOK, DATE WITH DEATH, Jess unleashes a pop-art crime spree of pirates, kidnappers and kung fu killers starring his beloved muse Lina Romay. Both films have been scanned in 4K from their original camera negatives, complete with all-new appreciations by Stephen Thrower and Parts 14 & 15 of In the Land of Franco, hailed by Mondo Digital as Severin’s ongoing featurettes that now constitute the most intensive and valuable survey of a filmmaker’s locations in history.

Blu-ray Verdict: First up is Trip To Bangkok Coffin Included (1985) where The colonel Daniel Blimp, of the secret British service, travels to Bangkok to investigate the murder of the British Ambassador happened during a holiday in his residence. Blimp receives the help of Keats, agent of the secret service. Both men discover that the man who shot against the Ambassador is blind, and it takes the black skin as a result of a strange phenomenon of mutation.

Trip to Bangkok, Coffin Included has Jess Franco in pulp adventure mode, making a loose adaption of an Edgar Wallace story. Colonel Daniel Blimp (Howard Vernon) of the British Secret Service is in Bangkok investigating the murder of the British ambassador by a blind man. Blimp is joined by another younger singer agent played by José Llamas who can do the actual fighting because, well, Vernon is pushing 78 or so here. While this was made in Palma de Mallorca and Benidorm for the interiors, the exteriors really are Bangkok and Singapore, as Juan Soler flew himself there and was a crew of one capturing all the establishing shots. The killer being blind is the whole plot of a cult leader named Professor Tao, who trains the blind to murder. This is more adventure than your normal Franco sleaze, yet there is a chase scene with a nude woman who stays disrobed on screen for ten minutes, so it’s not like Jess is slowing down at all. I also like the idea that Tao is actually motivated to save the world as he saw world leaders destroy the world in a cave vision, so that’s why he started his cult of doom. Also, Lina Romay shows up in a wheelchair for less than a few seconds and it still filled me with utter joy. [B.M.]

Then we get Trip To Bangkok, Coffin Included (1985) where during a cruise, a gang of oriental pirates abducts Marta, the daughter of billionaire Flanagan, who asks the adventurer Panama Joe for help.

Bangkok, City of the Dead - directed by Franco as Clarence Brown and soundtracked by him as Pancho Villa - finds rich girl Marta (Helena Garret) kidnapped by Akuto and Aminia (Lina Romay), who decide that since they’re not getting a cut of the 20 million dollar ransom from their boss Malko (Antonio Mayans), they should just keep her for themselves and make sure her boyfriend Riao (José Llamas) can save her.

Except that Malko kills Akuto, Aminia tries to make him give the girl back, Riao tries to save her, and her father Flanagan (Eduardo Fajardo) hires Panama Joe (Bork Gordon), a private detective who is not Al Pereira, to also save her.

There’s no hardcore sex - but Lina dancing in a leopard bikini, which I can appreciate - and no diamond theft, either. If you’re a frequent guest in the Jess Franco Cinematic Universe, you’re used to seeing Lina eat bananas, amongst other things, and the camera being pulled into the tractor beam it seemed to have between her thighs.

Shot at the same time as Trip to Bangkok, this has Lina as a pirate queen and a talking parrot, as well as Jess making an Oriental adventure movie - again - and that’s fine because sometimes I like to sit back and watch his films as if they are waves cresting over me as my feet are buried in the sand. [B.M.]

Bonus Features:
DISC 1 BLU-RAY: TRIP TO BANGKOK, COFFIN INCLUDED
• Filmmaking On The Run – Interview With Film Writer/Bit Player/Assistant Director Carlos Aguilar
• Colonel Blimp In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco
• In The Land Of Franco Part 14

DISC 2 BLU-RAY: BANGKOK, DATE WITH DEATH • Carrara In Bangkok – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco
• Bangkok Back To Back – Interview With Film Scholar Dr. Álex Mendíbil
• In The Land Of Franco Part 15
Disc Specs:
• Runtime: 180 mins
• Audio: Spanish Mono
• English Subtitles
• Region Free
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
*All foreign-language featurettes are subtitled in English
Limited Edition Slipcover
Slipcover Illustrated by Drazen Kozjan