The third film in the Martial Law series; it comes many years after its immediate (and absolutely atrocious) predecessor Martial Law 2.

The film opens with Benedetta Bernardelli (Lyen Parker) being interrogated about the disclosure of her password to some foreign entity which used it to access top-secret information, she discloses only her name and rank. Needless to say, Lieutenant Bernardelli refuses to confess as she is innocent. She is repeatedly interrogated over the next few weeks but reveals nothing.

As she remains obstinate, further measures are used to obtain a confession. She is placed in the incredibly joint-unfriendly parrot perch position, to make it work a tube is pushed into her pussy and she is subject to electrocution. Again no confession!

A different tactic is used next; they kidnap her sister (Leticia Yako) and subject her to the cane and whip. The sister has a nice fat round rump (imagine a pair of hamburger buns, one on either side of her spine) that is just begging to be beaten bloody. She takes many strokes of the cane and whip and is reddened from ass to back by the time Ms. Bernardelli is brought in. Needless to say, watching her sister being whipped immediately caused her to break down and she finally agrees to confess.

Next comes the scene where she is sentenced to 150 lashes, in light of her guilty plea, the final 50 is deferred until a later date. She is to receive 50-50 lashes, with a half hour break in between. A bit is placed in her mouth to prevent her from biting off her tongue.

The first set of 50 lashes begins and Lyen bravely lasts about the first 10 lashes without making much noise. Yet by the 12th lash, she is drooling past the gag down onto her chest and you can just see it in her eyes how much she wants it all be over with. The 22nd stroke is where the round really gets intense, Lyen is struck in the lower back and she recoils heavily. Her head rears up involuntarily and her breathing markedly increases and she really begins to panic. Towards the end of the first set, with the last few lashes, Lyen's tears have run down her face and on to the floor, her head rears back and she howls in pain…....

As Lyen is restrained for her second set of 50 lashes, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, when she opens her them again, her expression simply states "oh fuck, please don't let me die here." After the fifteenth stroke), her breathing rapidly increases and she pulls even harder on her bindings and really, really starts sobbing; and this just gets worse and worse for the remainder of the round. After the 32nd lash, she clamps down on the bit in her mouth and briefly locks her jaw around it…..subsequent strokes have her rearing her shoulders up as if in vain trying to escape the whip. By the end of the round, after Ariel's complete and total demolition of this poor, innocent lady, she immediately sags into the hosts arms, completely exhausted and totally defeated.

The film concludes with a short interview with our tragic and very entertaining heroine: Lyen Parker. The interview starts off interesting, but then Pedro ruins the moment and absolutely kills it towards the end when he asks her if her parents spanked her as a kid. C'mon man, who gives a fuck about how her parents disciplined her…..talk about the damn film!!!

In the end, this was a simple, dark and brutal punishment film, and a damn masterpiece: one of Pedro's best!

Lady Ariel was perfect here as the cold, callous and cruel executioner. She was completely indifferent to Lyen's plight, and from stroke 1-100 never let up the pace or showed any mercy. Her face rarely showed any emotion except for anger and contempt and when she gritted her teeth and snarled as she lashed Lyen……Vicious! Her blank detachment and the dead look in her eyes were perfect for the film, as if making Lyen scream in agony under the lash was just another day at the office. I have very much enjoyed learning from Pedro that Ariel is indeed a vicious bitch and isn't really acting in her films!

This was the first time we ever got to see Lyen Parker in Pedro's films, and this film was what made me fall in love with this lady (as a submissive). To take on such a savage whipping in your first hardcore BDSM film…..I have nothing but respect for this woman. The look on her face after stroke #3 lands as she takes a deep breath and flexes her shoulders practically screams… "oh fuck, why did I confess?" As if she just started to realize what she was in for…..beautiful! Lyen has legitimate acting skills and this film really illustrated that. When her "sister" was being beaten and Lyen's blindfold was removed, the immediate wide-eyed horror and heavy breathing as she observed her ordeal…(you would think this really was her sister being tortured)….and then when the sentence was announced and instead of the 20-25 lashes she was promised, she received 150 lashes.…the immediate devastation in her eyes….as she finally began to realize unfairness of the situation and the pointlessness of her confession.

The scenery and dark ambiance were excellent in this film. Plain interrogation rooms with stark bare walls with muted colors, Lyen being kept dirty and unwashed and the cold indifferent Interrogators all combined served to truly amplify the unrelentingly bleak hopelessness of Lieutenant Bernardelli's situation…..that no matter what happens she. Is. fucked! The three members of the tribunal who sentenced her: the host's and Cleo's blank expressionless stares, and the other man who gave her false advice…..as they looked on as her whipping played out really helped give the impression of cold detachment, that she trapped all alone in a world where no one gave a damn about her.

My favorite parts about this film where right after each set of 50 strokes ended and Lyen was released from her bonds. The host held her up as Lady Ariel untied her arms and both times she had to be lowered to the ground as she was so exhausted she would have immediately collapsed if not for his aid. Both scenes really highlighted just how severe the whippings were for Lyen to endure and really made me enjoy the film even more. I really do hope that we get to see this again in a future film (or Anigif).

Two little annoyances in this film for me were Lyen's tattoos and Lady Ariel's bright pink nail polish. (The tattoos were the issue that peeved some viewers and the nail issue was totally mine). Luckily a certain very short person complained and Pedro addressed the tattoo issue in some of his future films. As for the nail polish….well this was an interrogation film, bright pink nail polish doesn't work with drab uniforms and dark unadorned walls. Every time Ariel raised her arms to deliver a stroke my eyes were drawn to the garish nail polish like a damn magnet. A minor issue, yet unprofessional considering the context of the film.

There was one thing missing from this film: a scene where Lyen struggles as she is stripped naked and tied up to receive her whippings. Instead, Lyen voluntarily stripped naked and allowed herself to be restrained for the whipping. Considering how entertaining it was when Lyen struggled and demanded they release her sister.....it would have been nice to see her struggle and protest again. The whole Idea here was that while she did consent to plead guilty (under duress), she was expecting a lower sentence when she received a much harsher one, she should have been outraged.....rather disappointing!

The camera angles were somewhat problematic….. virtually all of them were shot from the side and rear, we don't get any frontal shots of Lyen…..not a single one! The parrot perch scene was also too short and there was no full body shot in that scene whatsoever. However they were not all so bad, as the rear and side-view angles were excellent in this film, we still got to see plenty of Lyen's face and all of her deep red welts. Also, during the second set of lashes, there were many shots that featured both Lyen and Ariel's faces. I just loved the contrast between Lyen's passionate crying and tears dripping down her face and Ariel's cold as death eyes and blank, emotionless face.