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Starting out for Thailand in winter 2001, we didn't even suppose,
that we will find there not only the traces of Scaramanga (every tourist guide-book contains
information about it!), but will take a dive into the midst of things from the movie "Live and
Let Die" and will feel ourselves a little bit James Bond, and not simply James Bond, but
the very same Bond - yes... - Timothy Dalton performed!
Read the article, written by Nickolas Nosov
"Following the scents of "The Man With The Golden Gun""
and also -
our pendants to it:
"Scaramanga after a quarter of a century passed",
"Is this crocodile the same?"
and ...
"Being in competition with James Bond".
We do hope, that our publication will be useful for our readers
now, in the height of the summer season, though it's wonderful - to have a rest, - in Thailand
and everywhere!
Following the scents of a Man with the Golden Gun
The South-Chinese Sea. The Summeth island. The sun looks like a
blood-red ball and almost set behind the island on the horizon.
The jungle came alive again in the twilight hours. A copperhead has
spoken like a drone, a mongoose has puled his combat song, a monkey has cried, a night-bird has
hooted and someone hard has gone to smash down bamboo dead-wood. The glow-worms were flying above
the boscage of young gum-trees, meteorites traced the lines on the night sky, Milky Way slightly
fluttered directly upon our heads in the flows of a self-cooled air.
We, the expedition of Internet site "Timothy Dalton - Russian
Traceries", are sitting on the beach of Gulf of Siam and summarize our journey, where we followed
the scents of James Bond and the Man with the golden gun.
As you know, the events, described in the film, take place in the
triangle Hong-Kong, Bangkok and an island in the South-Chinese Sea. It seemed to us, that all
filmimg took place in the only country - Thailand, where we have arrived on January 24 - 2001 by
charter flight from Moscow.
Bangkok surprised us with its dimension, ultra-modern skyscrapers
and highways, which overhunging the town. It seemed, that nothing reminds of the town from the
film - a lot of time passed since the moment of filming and Bangkok is a throbbing rapidly growing
city. Every here and there we could meet the nobby villas, similar to backdrops of the film, near
miserable hovels, which you will never find in Moscow though.
But when we have sat in junk and went along the channels, trying to
find the way of James Bond's escape, everything became clear to us. Here, in the central part of
town nothing has changed. The same little houses, built on piles for the deprived urbanites, who
can't pay high taxes for land and this is the reason, they live "on the water" - as before, they
wash and rinse linen in troubled waters of the river Ciao Praiah, as before the junks of sellers
run up on the junk with tourists and offer goods - bananas and souvenirs. Only a boy, who offered
the figure of elefant and overjumped from boat to boat ably was absent in the picture, but it was
simple - to imagine him there. Only the appearance of a little elefant in the film, when he shoved
the American policeman into the water was "A fish story" in film, because to meet an elefant in
Bangkok is so simple, like to meet the bear in Moscow. However we have met one little and
charming elefant in the elefant's village nearby Pattaya, he tried to ask the tourists about food,
so he could appear in Bangkok too.
We couldn't find the town house, where James Bond and his
girls-helpers gave kumites (fightings with using the karate technique). By the way, these scenes in
the film looks far-fetched, because karate is not very popular in Thailand. As for sumo-matmen,
they are absent in this country. The film makers probably made a muddle of different kinds of
wrestle in Japan and Thailand. Completely another situation take place with the usage of water
channels - like many years ago they serve for moving along Bangkok "water streets" and sometimes
it is the only way to avoid the constant backup of cars on town highways.
The meeting of James Bond and the Man with the golden gun on the
sports arena, during the competitions on Thai boxing looks naturally. This is really sport number
one in Thailand (every minute you can watch the fragments of wrestles on Thai TV). And many people
like to go to stadions to watch it, so there you can always hide yourself in the crowd.
Let's describe the way James Bond car pursued Scaramanga's one. They
started from stadion and drrove along the broad street (probably, it was RATCHAWITHI), which led to
the Victory-monument (the tall obelisk on a background of the street in the film). Then they
achieved the square with the roundabout system of traffic. Here the policemen began to pursue them.
In the film we can watch, that they go by Church Complex Wat Ratchananda and Democracy Monument.
Then they crossed the river Tchoa Praia and went along the river , where some minutes later James
Bond made his vertiginous jump across the water, driving a car.
This route is not very reasoned, because at the first time Scaramanga
couldn't recognize the chase and it wasn't necessary to make so large circle around the town. But
this route was probably more convenient for the director to make filming.
Certainly, now Bond couldn't move so fast driving a car - the central
part of Bangkok is overflow with cars and Good Night would probably smother with smoke in the boot,
because not only policemen are working in Bangkok streets equipped with respirators, but even some
sellers have the same to protect themselves against the smoke. Sometimes you can meet the
passers-by, looking like policemen and sellers too.
In my look, it would be interesting to watch the development of plot
with a chase in jungle with using… Thai elefants… Indeed, Thailand is the country with the greatest
number of wild elefants in the world. There are a lot of domestic elefants too. If you are a tourist,
you will get invitation to go for a ride by elefant. And we couldn't refuse. I think, that a chase
in jungle with elefants and hand-to-hand fighting between Bond and Scaramanga, both sitting on
elefants, would add more exoticism to the film.
However in the film all events look much more prosaical and
Scaramanga flew by his car-aeroplane to his island, which placed, according to the script, in the
South-Chineese Sea, in the territorial waters of China.
As a matter of fact, the filming took place in Thailand, on the
island by name Phucket. It's a very picturesque isle with precipitous cliffs. Here Scaramanga has
done his special set - the island Cao Taroo. It's impossible - do not recognize it among another
isles, because the post-cards with the views of this one are selling everywhere in Thailand. On
these pics you will find a new name of this wonderful place - "The island of James Bond" or "The
island of the Man with the golden gun". To reach the pick of the isle you need bamboo pole. Thais
use them to get eggs of wild birds, nesting on cliffs. This island is placed in Indian Ocean
(Andaman Sea), but we went to the island Sumeth, placed, as it was said in the movie, in the
South-Chinese Sea, nearby the border with Cambodia.
Being on the island Sumeth, we have at last understood, why did
Scaramanga create his residence here. The pure water of sea, palms, white sea sand, sun - and all
these things you have all the time during the year. If you add to the advantages above the complete
absence of people, that what can be better for the rest? Everything there is like in the
TV-advertising of Baunty - "paradisal enjoyment"! We spent there three days and investigated all
the island with the aim to know, where we could build the residence of the Man with the golden gun.
We knew, that the presence of grottos in beachside cliffs creates good conditions for building the
hidden shelter there.
In general, the film-makers showed the setting and the main
features of Thai's life, their customs and culture acqurately and true-to-life enough. This is
the main difference between this old movie and many Holywood new ones, when their directors even
do not try to study the history and customs of a country. Certainly, we should make an amendment
for the time - instead of cycle rickshaw, which was used by James Bond, we moved in Bangkok with
a help of motor rickshaw (its name in Bangkok is "Tuk- tuk"). The number of highways increased
considerably, underground was built, but many things are looking like many years before and this
case makes possible the truly absorbing travel after the scents of The Man With The Golden Gun.
N.N., 2001
Addition 1.
Scaramanga after a quarter of a century passed
The correspondent of Russian TV has met Christopher Lee, the actor,
who played a part of Scaramanga, in October of 2000. This is his brief speech, the words of Christopher:
"This is a great pleasure - to play in films about James Bond,
because they didn't pinch pennies on filming. To work there was especially pleasant to me, because
Ian Fleming is my cousin! Everything was excellent there - the stage set, the stunts, and
sometimes - the actors' skills. But not always… "
Can you guess, whom was Christopjer referring to?
K.E., 2001
Addition 2.
Is this crocodile the same?
On the pics below you see 2 crocodiles. One of them has his home in
the special farm in Thailand. Another one - lives in the movie "Live And Let Die".
Excursion to the farm and the Crocodile Show in Thailand remind us
about the adventures of Bond in the movie - especially, the Roger Moore's run on alligators' backs
and, certainly, another attributes of the film: regatta of motor boats, beautiful fortune-teller
and chilling metal hand. So after dinner, where we have put a dried grasshopper.and exotic fruits
to our lips, it was almost impossible to see the difference between these pretty crocodiles!
So which crocodile is real?
K.E., 2001
Addition 3.
Being in competition with James Bond
You can meet this amusement everywhere, when you have a rest at the
sea resorts. However only in Thailand, where the air is simply impregnated with the atmosphere of
Bond movies, the women part of our expedition couldn't check herself and took a risk to repeat the
thing, Timothy Dalton has shown in the beginning of his two Bond movies - "The Living Daylights"
and "The Licence To Kill". (Certainly, we want to believe, he made it himself, without the
responsible!)
Is it true, everything in our jumps looks like in the movie? Only we
couldn't fire the parachute canopy - why Thais didn't understand yet, that providing the flyings
with fireworks, they could enrich themselves faster!
In the next scene of parachute landing Timothy had a very nice
partner-woman, and cheerful men-Thais were waiting for our girls on the ocean beach.
Probably, the professionals have done the parachute landings on the
square in front of Church in the film "Licence To Kill" and Timothy and his partner only walked an
alderman's pace into the Church with the special parashute trails. Our girls hadn't the
responsibles - Vica landed herself!
However, "walking on parachute" causes similar sensations. We prove
these words by publishing these pics of Irene and Timothy, where they are in the same mood after
landing.
What do you think, who is the winner in this correspondence c
ompetition?
Ê.Å., 2001
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