Monkey Kung Fu (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movieirected by Mar Lo for the Shaw Brothers in 1979, Monkey Kung Fu (also known as Stroke Of Death) stars Siu-Tung Ching as a man named Wei Chung who, while in prison, is gifted part of a mysterious wooden totem by an aged, cyclopean kung-fu master named Ma Siu Tien who is essentially on death row. Chung decides to break out of prison and to find the other part of the totem so that he can ascertain its purpose and what it could possibly mean to him. Making things difficult, however, is the fact that Chung is chained to fellow prisoner Zhou (Hau Chiu-Sing), which makes their escape a bit tricky.Regardless, they make it out of prison only to find themselves pursued by members of a violent gang of martial artists out to retrieve the totem for themselves. What Chung eventually figures out is that the totem is a key to unlocking the old man's secret fight...Read the entire review »

Bilitis (Blu-ray) by Justin Remer The Movie: Bilitis is an odd softcore whatsit from 1977, inspired by the pseudo-Sapphic poetry of Pierre Louÿs. Patti D'Arbanville (Rancho Deluxe, Big Wednesday) plays Bilitis, a schoolgirl fumbling toward her sexuality during a brief stay at a country house with an unfamiliar young couple. (D'Arbanville was 25 at the time of filming and, despite the filmmakers' best efforts, can't quite fool us into thinking she's an early-teen.)The film's oddness is partly due to the seemingly competing sensibilities of its director and main writer. Director David Hamilton was known for soft-focus photography of nude young women and ...Read the entire review »