Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)

[Drunk Monk]

One of Jimmy Wang Yu’s masterpieces. He wrote, directed and starred in this absurdly gratuitous Kung Fu classic where he reprises his one-armed boxer and pits him against a blind white-eyebrowed monk with a swastika bag and a flying guillotine. I really need a flying guillotine in my collection.

It starts by centering on a tournament which fills the first half of the film with senseless ultravi of the cheesiest level like mortal kombat with ridiculous caricatures of martial arts master in no holds barred duels where anything goes. Some carry weapons. Some don’t. Eye gouging, kicking the family jewels, secret stiletto-like blades, dirt to the eyes, choking opponents out with your queue - so many foul plays. It’s awesome. 

The choreo has its moments. My fav is the Indian master (a Chinese in brown face) and his magical telescopic arms. Mostly it’s about totally ridiculous battles that are totally entertainment. This is painfully bad, so bad that it’s awesome. 

Absolutely D00M recommended. It would be so fun to watch this with y’all, libations and cheesey snacks. We’d put MST3K to shame.

Seen on YouTube which has many Wang flicks, and multiple complete MotFG films of varying quality. I started with an English dub but the dub quit in like 20 min so I found another that kept randomly switching from English to mandarin w/subs.

[cranefly]

DM knows all this, but I will just add that one year prior to Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) there was a similarly-named movie The Flying Guillotine (1975), starring Chen Kwan-Tai, and that it's a darker and more serious film (though worth watching in itself).  So if you pursue watching Master of the Flying Guillotine, don't get them mixed up.

BTW, when I was in a bar in China (was it Bejing?), a kung fu brother (Onassis) called me over.  He was drinking with a Chinese guy, and he asked if I knew who he was.  I guessed he was an actor.  Yep, it was Chen Kwan-Tai.  Though residing in Hong Kong, he was in China pursuing a role (if I recall).  We had drinks together.

I'm trusting that this isn't a false memory...

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, Beijing.  That was the night I was grappling with a brutal bout of Mao's revenge. I was sick as a dog. O came up to my room and beckoned me down to join you guys, but I was spent. I just didn't have anything left to do that and needed to recover so we could get into that car crash. 

I regretted that for years. That was until I spent a weekend with Chen in FL and wrote this cover story - https://www.kungfumagazine.com/index.php...ticle=1020. He was such a gentleman. It was such an honor. 

BTW, The Gallants is definitely worth the view, if you can find it - http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=2179

The original was a better film because it was more serious and original. Wang's film is better because it's ridiculous and unabashedly rips off the original - same weapon, same usage (Qing assassins quashing Ming rebels). But it firmly establishes the weapon as fair game for everyone to rip off, starting a wonderfully campy franchise. I now regret not bringing this point up in my Den retrospective but I banged that out quickly, and it's a huge topic, so it is what it is. 

I'd say that the flying guillotine needs a reboot, but they tried that (I did mention that in the retrospective) and it was horrible. Well, not totally horrible, but they messed up by not including the star of the franchise, the flying guillotine itself (I did mention that). Another note I left here http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=2940