Released in the U.S. as Instructors of Death, Martial Club is from director Lau Kar Leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter) and stars Gordon Liu as Wong Fei Hung, the legendary hero who was also the inspiration for the movies Drunken Master and Once Upon a Time in China.

His father, Wong Kei Ying runs one well-respected kung fu school while the Chan school also provides a good example to aspiring martial artists. Wang Yin-Lin (Te-Lo Mai), a student from the Chan school, has a friendly rivalry with Wong Kei Yung that is tested when a third school — one not as clean-cut — brings a guest martial artist in and convinces them that the good schools are evil and, as they say, hijinks ensue. And seeing as how Master Shan Hsiung is played by Lung-Wei Wang, there is bound to be a big fight between the leads.

The American tagline was “This is a tough school…if you fail, you’re dead!” The truth is, while the final fight between Gordon Liu and Lung-Wei Wang down an increasingly narrow room is spectacular, this doesn’t have the life and death odds you usually expect from a Shaw Brothers movie. That isn’t to say that it isn’t fun nor that it’s gorgeous from the very first scene, a dragon dance routine at a parade that the new 88 Films blu ray makes look better than perhaps ever before.

88 Films blu ray release of Martial Club offers an HD transfer from the original negative, as well as commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng and actor/martial Artist Michael Worth. There’s another supplemental commentary with Djeng, a grindhouse presentation of the U.S. Instructors of Death version of the movie, interviews with Robert Ma, Johnny Wang, producer Larence Wong, stuntmen Hung Sun-Nam and Tony Tam, a Hong Kong trailer, the Instructors of Death trailer and a reversible sleeve featuring original Hong Kong poster artwork and new art by R.P. “Kung Fu Bob” O’Brien. There’s also a limited edition collector’s book with behind the scenes photos and writing by Barry Forshaw. You can get this blu ray from MVD.

I saw an article on Film Butcher that said that The National Mummy was part of the trend of destape (uncover) films as Franco and the Catholic Church’s power over the cultural morals of Spain declined. That’s funny, as the poster they shared has the mummy being unwrapped.

Released the same year as the zombie movie in mummy bandages Dawn of the Mummy, this José Ramón Larraz-directed film is a sexy comedy. Unlike so many movies in his career, Larraz worked from a script by someone else, as this was written by Juan José Alonso Millán (he also wrote Marta, one of my favorite movies).

Saturnino (Francisco Algora) is a young and wealthy archaeologist. While relaxing in his mansion, he receives a visit from his teacher — and hombre lobo por la noche — Don Felipe (Quique Camoiras, a prop comedian who often used larger objects to make his diminutive size even smaller), who brings along his daughter Ana Mari (Azucena Hernández, who was also in El retorno del Hombre Lobo in 1981) and a mummy that he has found in the Upper Nile.

Much like every mummy movie ever, no one pays attention to the curse. In this case, her bandages are to remain on, but when they loosen up, she comes to life and begins killing every man she can through violent sex.

As if having a werewolf and a mummy in the film was not enough, there’s also a very Nosferantu-like vampire named Dr. Vilaseca (Carlos Lucena) who has an entire army of ladies of the evening who only come out at night. And oh yes — there’s also an axe murderer loose in the house.

This is a goofball film, the kind of movie where a picnic descends into hijinks when a maid gets her arm cut off and numerous people try and help her while the protagonist tries to feel up the professor’s daughter after she faints. Where Cupid can descend from a brothel ceiling and attempt to take charge of lovemaking. And where the touch of a female vampire hooker can turn a man into a beast. It’s dumb but knows how to be fun.

Also known as Sex Academy in the UK, this José Ramón Larraz directed and written film is al about the titular Madame Olga (Helga Liné, The Killer of Dolls) who may or may not be related to the Olga with the House of Shame, but she does have a high class bordello in London.

Over 77 minutes, Larraz packs in the prurient scenes, as well as a story about how one of Olga’s girls named Tina (Eva Lyberton) ends up dying after an encounter with a millionaire. Usualy Olga just maes things like this disappear but a friend of the dead girl named Rafael (Jorge Gonce) starts asking too many questions.

Olga deals with it by giving him a job scouting new girls but he soon falls for both Lavinia (Marie Harper, the 1983 Fanny Hill, The Urge to Kill, Emmanuelle in Soho) and her mother Betty (Lynn Endersson). Of course, he also makes time to Olga while he’s at it.

It looks very sumptuous — of course, Larraz directed it — but the artist was meant for so much more.

The third of the trilogy that includes La Polizia fa Carriera (Confessions of a Lady Cop) and La Poliziotta Della Squadra del Buon Costume (A Policewoman on the Porno Squad), this Michele Massimo Tarantini (The Sword of the Barbarians, Massacre in Dinosaur Valley) film has one major reason to watch it: the always wonderful Edwige Fenech as Gianna Amicucci.

With a story by Fenech’s one-time husband Luciano Martino and Francesco Milizia along with a screenplay by Alberto Silvestri, this commedia sexy all’italiana beings Gianna and Alvaro (Alvaro Vitali) to America to aid FBI agent Maccarone (Renzo Montagnani) and his case against pizza shop owner and suspected crime boss Big John (Aldo Maccione). It turns out that Gianna looks just like his girlfriend and Alvaro looks like his bodyguard, which is the kind of coincidence that only happens in Italian sex comedies. However, Big John’s rival Turk (Giacomo Rizzo) has declared a gang war and also falls for Gianna.

This movie is sexy in the way that Benny Hill used to make shows and is literally chaste by today’s standards. It’s also problematic in the way it deals with race and homosexuality, but if you expect 1981 Italian sexploitation movie to be totally woke, I have no idea how to explain what Italian sexploitation is to you.

The Indonesian superhero Gundala was influenced as well as the legend of Ki Ageng Selo, a powerful figure able to catch lightning with his bare hands. In the comics, Gundala is a scientist named Sancaka who is trying to create an anti-lightning serum. He’s so intent on his lab work that he forgets the birthday of his girlfriend Iris West — I mean Minarti — and they break up.

Sancaka gets so upset that he brings to run in the pouring rain and gets hit by a bolt of lightning that sends him to another reality where Emperor Kronz of the Lightning Kingdom gives him the power to shoot thunder from his hands and the ability to run quickly from King Typhoon of the Bayu Kingdom.

Created by Harya Suraminata, this movie was directed by Liliek Sudjio and finds Sancaka near-instantly electrocuted by that lightning bolt and meeting the very Crystar-looking Emperor Kronz and then battles a gang of drug dealers led by the gold claw-handed Ghazul (W.D. Mochtar).

Also: Ghazul drinks so much J&B that you’d think he was in a giallo.

Go into this knowing it has a very low budget but you’ll find something fun in the pre-MCU and way before CGI era of comic book films.

Today, Gundala is a part of Bumilangit Universe which is bringing back many Indonesian superheroes. There was a new Gundala movie in 2019 and films were planned for Godam, Tira and Patriot.

Thana (Zoë Tamerlis, who also wrote director Abe Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, is a mute seamstress working in New York City’s Garment District.

After she’s assaulted twice — once at gunpoint in an alley by a masked man and then again in her own apartment by a burglar — Thana lives up to her name, which is inspired by Thanatos the Greek god of death. She attacks the second man with a glass red apple and then beats him to death with an iron and leaves him in her tub. After dealing with her horrible work situation, she cuts her rapist apart and dumps him all over the city.

She keeps the man’s gun and soon uses it on another man who corners her, then runs up her steps and throws up in an echo of Paul Kersey’s first night of vigilantism in Death Wish.

Soon, she’s a literal Angel of Vengeance, which was the film’s other title. She targets a series of men who have treated women wrong and even causes one of them to kill himself when her gun jams. Finally, her vengeance reaches the point where she unleashes her full fury on her horrible boss and every man who attends her party as she whirls around, full action heroine, repeatedly shooting everyone while dressed as a nun.

Ms. 45 is better regarded than I Spit On Your Grave, perhaps because it doesn’t dwell in its rape scenes or have them take up much of the movie’s running time. Or maybe, just maybe, because it’s a much better movie.