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Story of a weird relationship

The Bad Girl revolves around the on-and-off relationship of two Peruvian emigrants living mostly in Europe.

The Bad Girl revolves around the on-and-off relationship of two Peruvian emigrants living mostly in Europe.

She is the "bad girl", so nicknamed by her tortured but faithful boyfriend Ricardo Somocurcio, whom she in turn has nicknamed "the good boy".

Their strange relationship combines various degrees of lust and indifference, trust and betrayal, obsession and hate and using and being used.

The bad girl first appears as a poor Chilean student, Lily, in Miraflores, Peru, the town from which young Ricardo hails.

Ricardo falls head over heels for the elusive 15-year-old girl until she suddenly disappears from the town.

Several years later Ricardo is in Paris, pursuing his simple dream of living in the city of lights.

Through his friend Paul, an aspiring Latin-American revolutionary, Ricardo meets Arlette, a young rebel.

He quickly discovers that Arlette is the former Lily. She is packed off to Cuba to join the revolutionary army and, once again a few years later Ricardo finds Lily-Arlette in Paris, now the wealthy wife of Robert Arnaux, a Frenchman.

Lily proves to be a chameleon in human form, able to adapt her personal appearance, style and language to fit each role she assumes.

This chameleon is also a heartless carnivore, a snake readily shedding its skin for a new life, and a shark consuming its prey and intent on its next victim.

The Bad Girl is remarkably explicit but hardly beyond the bounds of taste.

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