The Flying Guillotine (1975, HK)

Starring: Chen Kuan Tai, Ku Feng, Wei Hung. Directed by: Ho Meng-hua

There is only one word to describe this movie: awesome! This is the first of the movies the Shaw Brothers made about the infamous flying guillotine, and one that is atypical of the usual Shaw Bros. flick.

In "The Flying Guillotine," the tyrannical Emperor Yung Cheng orders a new weapon devised to excruciatingly kill his enemies and install fear in the heart of his allies. One of his advisors creates the Flying Guillotine: a weapon sort of like a Frisbee on a chain that can be thrown over the head of a person and rip it right off. The Emperor orders his advisor to select a small group of his most elite, trusted soldiers to be trained in the use of the Flying Guillotine and sends them to work.

After several assasinations, some of the soldiers have an attack of conscience over what they're doing and who they're killing for. They decide to flee, but only Chen Kuan Tai makes it out of the Emperor's palace alive. After that, he must do whatever he can to stay alive since the Emperor's armies and assasins will not stop looking for him, and eventually he must also do whatever he can to keep his new family alive. But can he take on all of his former comrades by himself? Also, can he use the Flying Guillotine again to protect himself and his family?

There is a lot of roof-crawling and jumping (a la "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Iron Monkey") in this movie and a bit of regular kung-fu thrown into the mix. This makes the movie a sort of combination of kung-fu and action movie.

All in all this movie is a fairly darker movie than most fu flicks, but it's an excellent one! If you happen to stumble across this one, be sure to check it out!

Also known as: Xue di zi (Mandarin-original title), A Guilhotina Voadora (Brazil), La ghigliottina volante (Italy). Also released in the US in Oct. 1981 and in Germany in Nov. 2009 at the Munich Asia Filmfest.