Here is a review from the NY Times in 1964:
Bopha Devi:L'Oiseau de Paradis (1962)
Screen: Cambodian Love:Marcel Camus Directs 'Dragon Sky'
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: August 25, 1964
IT is obvious that Marcel Camus, the French director who made the highly colorful, tumultuous and tragic Brazilian samba film, "Black Orpheus," is trying to repeat the formula in his new film, "Dragon Sky," formerly called "Bird of Paradise," which opened yesterday at the Carnegie Hall Cinema.
He has taken a similar story, prepared by Jacques Viot, who did the script for "Black Orpheus," about a fated and frustrated love between a handsome young itinerant worker and a temple dancing girl. He has rolled out his color cameras to get some brilliant and exotic décor, and he has called upon Maurice Jarre to do a tinkling musical score.
Only this time the setting of the story is Cambodia, not Brazil, and the effectiveness of the drama is equally more remote.
The disclosure of this is distressing, as the picture rolls along, for the eye is constantly dazzled by the brilliance and strangeness of the scene. Most of the action takes place in the capital of Cambodia, Pnompenh, a fascinating Oriental city with confusingly modern overlays. Mr. Camus is diligent in keeping the screen alive with the colorful movement of the city and the distractions of its ambiguities.
He has further set the last part in the ancient ruins of Angkor Vat, where the atmosphere is heavy with a sense of age and mystery. Apparently, somewhere in these ruins, he has found a stage on which to enact a performance of the traditional dance of Rama and Sita, the classic lovers whose tragic story this modern drama is supposed to parallel.
But, distressingly, the drama is lacking in passion or charm. It moves along in perfunctory fashion, with the young lovers sluggishly oppressed by the intrusions of a young Westernized hustler who lusts for the dancing girl. The roles, which are carefully entrusted to handsome youngsters, are awkwardly performed, not so much because of poor direction but simply because the youngsters lack acting skill.
If Narie Hem were but half as expressive as she is lovely and seductive-looking as the dancing girl, there might he some passion in her pathos. As it is, it seems forced and banal.
And what is perhaps most distressing is the fact that the climactic dance, for all its Oriental beauty and mystery, is like a spectacle on the stage of the Music Hall. Crowded with agile performers, in masks and glittering costumes, it is an extravaganza of moving colors, reds and golds and browns.
But it is simply an extravaganza from which the people for whom we're supposed to care are as remote and uninvolved as we are. Yes, it's a long way from the fiesta in "Black Orpheus."
The Cast
DRAGON SKY, screenplay by Jacques Viot, adapted by Mr. Viot and Marcel Camus; directed by Mr. Camus; a co-production of Speva Films-Cine Alliance-Filmsonor, presented by Michel Safra and Serge Silberman, and released by Lopert Pictures Corporation. At the Carnegie Hall Cinema, 7th Avenue at 56th Street. Running time: 95 minutes.
Dara . . . . . Narie Hem
Sok . . . . . Sam El
Khem . . . . . Nop Nem
Tith . . . . . Little Skarine
and Princess Bopha Devi