Review of The Flying Guillotine (1975) by Jason J — 22 Apr 2011

A classic Shaw Brothers movie about an Emperor who recruits a team of assassins to use a new deadly weapon - a flying guillotine that can take a man's head off at a 100 yards!! One man, Ma Teng discovers treachery and greed amongst the team so he escapes only for the Emperor to order the team to take him out. Whilst on the run, Ma starts a new life with his wife and baby son but how long can he hide before somebody finds out where he lives?

One of the most famous Shaw Brothers movie which went on to have a couple of sequels.This isn't your typical kung-fu movie, it's more like a horror with some kung-fu overtones. There's an atmosphere of dread in the storyline as once the flying guillotine is locked in on it's unfortunate victim there's basically no escape. This movie pays more attention to plot, character interaction, and drama than your usual old-school HK movie. The violence level is high, although there isnâ(TM)t that much blood. Tons of people are beheaded, and usually all we see is the corpse flopping around afterwards, legs kicking spasmodically. Itâ(TM)s pure camp fun. The acting is quite good and it's an exciting movie. I definitely loved it.