Il paese del sesso selvaggio (1972)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writers:

Francesco Barilli (writer)
Massimo D'Avak (writer)

Release Date:

23 May 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Horror | Romance

Tagline:

See! The Torture That Makes a Modern Man Defenseless!

Plot:

A photographer in the rain forest is captured by wild natives, and after months of living with them, he marries the chief's daughter and helps protect the village from a vicious cannibal tribe.

Plot Keywords:

Cannibal Tribe | Photographer | Cannibal | Torture | Dead Man

Cast

Ivan Rassimov	...	John Bradley
Me Me Lai	...	Marayå (as Me Me Lay)
Pratitsak Singhara	...	Taima
Sullalewan Suxantat	...	Karen
Ong Ard	...	Lahuna
Prapas Chindang	...	Chuan
Pipop Pupinyo	...	Mihuan
Tuan Tevan	...	Tuan
Chit	...	Cannibal
Choi	...	Cannibal
Song Suanhad	...	Witch Doctor
Pairach Thaipradt	...	Thai

Also Known As:

Deep River Savages (Europe: English title)
Man from Deep River (International: English title)
Sacrifice! (USA)
Au pays de l'exorcisme (France) [fr]
Cannibalis: Au pays de l'exorcisme (France) [fr]
Mies syvästä joesta (Finland) [fi]
Mondo cannibale (West Germany) [de]
Sfaxte tous kannivalous (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Voreia tou Bangkok (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

93 min | UK:89 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | Burmese | Thai

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (2003) (heavily cut) | USA:Not Rated | UK:R (original rating: 1975) | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Italy:VM18 | Norway:18 (VHS rating) | UK:(Banned) (1984-2003) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Medusa Produzione

Trivia:

The film is considered to be the first "cannibal film", a subgenre of European exploitation films that was prevalent in Grindhouse cinema in the late seventies and early eighties.

Quotes:

John Bradley: I'm a human being, like you! I'm a man, not a fish!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987) (V)

The original of the species

John Bradley (Ivan Rassimov) a London based photographer is on assignment in Thailand, after accidentally killing a local thug and taking into account that he is blonde and over six foot, he goes on the run into the countryside where along with a local as his guide he travels north to Burma by boat to film underwater river life. After falling asleep on the boat, he wakes to find his assistant dead in the water and himself captured by natives, they use him as a slave, but after some time he gradually builds up his credibility and becomes a warrior within the tribe and even finds himself courted by the chief's daughter Maraya (Me Me Lai), but not before they subject him to some tortuous trials. Inspired somewhat by A Man Called Horse and itself perhaps an inspiration for Dancing with Wolves, Man from Deep River is often touted as the first real cannibal film, its certainly one of the first to show the practice graphically. The film though should not be compared to later gorefests like Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox or Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, as it is much more restrained film that plays much more like a love story doomed to fail, that has cannibalism as a backdrop, even the de rigeur animal slayings seem to be there to further the plot, in fact it's a rather sad tale of tribal life, told well. Rassimov at times resembles a Christ-like figure, one minute bound and tied and being speared, the next stooping in a loin cloth while struggling to carry large pieces of timber…he looks the part too. Former UK gameshow assistant Me Me Lai provides the love interest and the not so ample curves as she had later in her career.