No other personal statement in the history of film can really be compared to this Italian drama from Paolo Cavara, a former colleague of mondo filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi and a co-director with them on the legendary Mondo Cane. Clearly less than thrilled with the tactics taken to get sensational "real" footage in front of the cameras, Cavara went off on his own to direct a much lighter, cheekier offering to the genre with Malamondo before tackling this acidic look at the perils of capturing shocking footage around the globe at any cost. 
That's just the beginning though as Paolo starts a romantic relationship with his pretty English assistant, Barbara (Boccardo), and hauls everyone off to Saigon to capture some of the forbidden cultural practices of the East. In the process he manipulates 
his surroundings to make the people look as desperate and ignorant as possible, such as setting up a "sultan" to look like a pauper forced to eat butterflies. Things take an even darker turn when he starts to get wind of impending executions and terrorist attacks, which not only puts the crew in danger but sends Paolo into a moral spiral from which he may not recover.
There may be too much languorous travelogue footage for some tastes, but it's all nicely shot in scope and integrated well enough into the main story. Another strong asset is the glittering lounge score by Gianni Marchetti, which has now become far more famous than the film itself and has steadily remained in print from the vinyl era to the present day. As for Cavara, he turned his back on the mondo scene entirely after this, moving on to a pair of respectable gialli (Black Belly 
of the Tarantula and Plot of Fear), a very surreal comedy (Virility), and a pretty good western (Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears).
exclusively through Screen Archives on Blu-ray offers a fine way to make the film's acquaintance with a pretty solid new HD transfer finally capturing the entire width of the original scope photography. It's not a traditionally pretty film in some scenes thanks to the decision to use natural light and sometimes go into very dark locations, but the gritty, sometimes abrasive texture of the film looks about right. Audio options in DTS-HD mono on the Blu-ray include the preferable English track and the Italian version with optional English subtitles (pulled from the English dialogue, not translated from the Italian).Extras include a rough lo-res theatrical trailer (which has only popped up in decent condition to date on Ban 1's long-discontinued, pre-Synapse 42nd Street Forever DVD) and a new 13-minute video interview with actor Lars Bloch, who recalls playing a member of the film crew and even chipping in a bit behind the scenes (as well as working with directors like Tinto Brass). A European release is also slated in the future from Camera Obscura, though specs and extras have yet to be confirmed.