In 1975, Ho Meng-Hwa made the first Flying Guillotine film for the Shaw Brothers Studios and it was a little sensation, introducing the deadliest weapon the martial arts world had ever seen. Please improve this article by adding a reference. Same dome, but with double blades – one to crack the Iron Umbrella and another to chop through the neck. I think it’s possible that, if you love Flying Guillotine, you won’t love Master Of The Flying Guillotine and vice versa. The Fatal Flying Guillotine Quotes. Master of the Flying Guillotine provides examples of: Awesome but Impractical: The Flying Guillotine in Real Life.Though Fung Sheng Wu Chi makes it look easy to use. To make matters worse, Hsiao Yao – brought in to replace the vanished Liu Wu Chi – pulled out as well, leaving the roles filled at the eleventh hour by Ti Lung and Chen Szu Chia. One of Shaw's biggest kung-fu stars at the time, Chen Kuan-tai plays the leader of the ‘Flying Guillotine Squad’ a group of hand picked killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor Yung Cheng, that use a deadly, beheading weapon to carry out the emperor's assassination assignments. Storyline Chen Kuan-tai battles assassins that use a deadly, beheading weapon to kill dissidents. How come two completely unofficial Guillotine movies came out before the Shaws’ first sequel? The Flying Guillotine, for some reason, fell out of fashion after Vengeful Beauty and while it’s been featured in several films since (from modern kung fu classics like Iron Monkey 2 and Heroic Trio to exploitation movies like Violent Shit 3 and Machine Girl), it’s very rarely been the star of the show again. The potential destruction – moral as well as physical – that stems from this invincible weapon’s existence is what lies is at the centre of Ho Meng-Hwa’s original film. See, Chen Kuan Tai and Liu Wu Chi were set to reprise their lead roles as Ma Teng and his wife but this didn’t happen. Predictably, heads roll. Ma Teng, who soon turns his back on the Guillotine Squad when he realises how corrupt the Empire is, makes a terrific hero and Yang Chiang plays the Emperor as a wily, cruel and lecherous creeper. This article does not contain any citations or references. There is much intrigue afoot in the Emperor’s palace though. It’s pretty much wall-to-wall from the moment the blind dude blows his house up to the last, blood-soaked frame. Hang on to your heads, lads. In this one an old guy named Shen has made himself “sick through exercise” (he’s done too much kung fu, basically) and has left his family to set up home in a place called The Valley Of No Return. Directed by Kang Cheng, Shan Hua. It takes place in a room full of birds, features heads spinning round 360 degrees, and culminates with one of the most joyfully flamboyant finishing blows imaginable. One of Shaw Brothers’ biggest kung-fu stars at the time, Chen Kuan-tai plays the leader of the ‘Flying Guillotine Squad’ a group of hand picked killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor Yung Cheng, that use a deadly, beheading weapon to carry out the emperor's assassination assignments. It's actually based on a true story. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The focus is on plot rather than fighting and, while there are some outrageous decapitations, there’s not a lot of actual kung fu. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. No one knows for sure if the Flying Guillotine was ever real or not but there’s no denying it’s an awesome spectacle for the movies. With twelve guys trained in using it and the Flying Guillotine making sudden violent death a guarantee for anyone who says the wrong thing to the wrong person, the Imperial atmosphere becomes one of suffocating paranoia. The martial arts are scrappy and brutal too, but with added emphasis on surreal supernatural skills (the Chinese guy in brownface with magical extending arms is a jaw-dropper for several reasons). Upon enveloping one's head, the blades cleanly decapitate the victim with a quick pull of the chain. Eventually, in a loose kind of tie-in, Quiyan teams up with Ma Sen (Norman Chu), a curiously similar character to Ma Teng from the first two films (just conveniently without wife and child), and the action builds to a suitably cataclysmic end. Anyway, the flying guillotine was apparently a real thing, as crazy as that sounds. The film concerns Wang's one-armed martial arts master being stalked by an imperial assassin, the master of two fighters (the Tibetan lamas) who were killed in the previous film. The sets are beautiful, evoking a strong sense of place, and it really does have something for everyone; sex, violence, romance, drama, adventure, revenge. Buy Now 0,58€ 0,56€ 0,51€ Genuine Flying Guillotine Team Fortress 2. Tory actually gets one to work, though it's not nearly as elegant. Watch Master of the Flying Guillotine on Amazon, Watch Flying Guillotine 2: Palace Carnage on Amazon, Best Martial Arts Movies on Netflix Right Now, The 36th Chamber Trilogy - Essential Kung Fu Movie Viewing, Best Martial Arts Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now, How Pokémon Snap Helped Pioneer the Photo Mode Era, Line of Duty Series 6 Episode 5: Marcus Thurwell, Homozygosity, Lawrence Christopher Questions & Theories, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 5: Marvel and MCU Easter Eggs, What It's Like to Play Control on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop, The Flying Guillotine Series in All Its Weird Glory. Legend has it that during the Qing dynasty, the Yung Cheng Emperor had it designed to assassinate his enemies. Meanwhile, Na Lan (Shi Szu), the daughter of one of the Palace’s many lords, plots to kill the Emperor while assembling her own amazing pink-clad Lady Guillotine Squad. However, there is also evidence that the weapon may have been soaked in deadly poison before use, such that it can kill a person immediately when blood is drawn (literally "at the sight of a drip of blood"), which gives rise to its Chinese name. While the Shaws wrangled with their sequel, Jimmy Wang Yu snuck in first, getting one up on his former studio and bringing the world Master Of The Flying Guillotine. ). If you want something even cheaper though, you can always rely on the Taiwanese alternative. The Flying Guillotine is set during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. Still, we’ll always have the old days. Although two months pregnant, Quiyan is Wudang trained and seriously badass, so she tracks down the assassins with view to giving them a taste of their own medicine. A total of three screenwriters worked on rewrites and, by the final draft, neither Ma Teng or his wife had a particularly large role in the story anyway! Thus, I’m taking a look back at a set of films that, even at their worst, were a lot of fun but, at their best, were quite magnificent. Learn more super-cool facts at www.cjlines.com. The "improved" guillotine (left) as shown in the 1976 Hong Kong film Master of the Flying Guillotine. One alleged way of using it is that, upon enveloping one's head, the blades cleanly decapitate the victim with a pull of the chain. In the same way the Italians remade American hits in weird and wonderful ways, the Taiwanese re-interpreted successful Hong Kong features, sometimes with more energy and flair than the originals. Esteemed director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among kung-fu film fans in the West with his wild and wacky martial arts hit "The Flying Guillotine". Please improve this article by adding a reference. The consensus is that the weapon resembled a hat with a bladed rim with a long chain attached to it. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. After four months, a young acolyte named Ma Teng (Kuan Tai Chen) stands out as being the master of the weapon and emerges as the natural leader of the squad. The weapon the film uses was a real thing but one that historians can’t decide if it was real and used the way it was supposed to or just was used in a different manner and history has forgotten the real reason. The Boxer's adversary is the assassin Fung Sheng Wu Chi who is blind, is an expert user of the Flying Gu… It's actually based on a true … It possesses a fierce energy and way more onscreen violence than the other films in the series. Half way through the shoot though, Kang left and Hua Shen (of, um, Infra-Man fame) took over, due to increasing troubles on set…. The emperor's reign of terror expands. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no cooler weapon than the Flying Guillotine. Unfortunately, being blind, he’s not sure of the Boxer’s identity so just wanders around the country in his swastika-patterned robes, on a crazed decapitating spree of literally every one-armed man he can find (yes, this is the real plot)…. This article does not contain any citations or references. This weapon supposedly hails from the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor during the Qing Dynasty. The extra Fatal qualities to which the title refers are added by the fact that Shen wields two Guillotines at once and somehow makes them spin at an incredible rate without moving his hands. I'm trying something new. This is roughly the same timeframe that Chang Cheh’s Shaolin Cycle films inhabit, although no one knows exactly when the burning of the Shaolin Temple occurred (and there are multiple conflicting stories of various Shaolin temples burning, too! Although production issues delayed the sequel by years – arguably killing the opportunity for a bonafide franchise – a cluster of semi-sequels and knock-offs emerged, ensuring the Guillotine remained in the public eye for the best part of four years. The flying guillotine is a legendary Chinese ranged weapon used during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. If it’s duffing up you’re after, the film provides it in spades (and spears, and swords, etc), contrasting with Flying Guillotine‘s more plot-driven approach. Master‘s main weakness is just that there’s almost no story to tie it together which makes even the most bonkers of fights seem a little tired after a while. There are stories and crude drawings detailing its appearance but Most interesting though is Feng Ku’s portrayal of Xin Kang – a conflicted man whose sense of duty and natural flair for invention lead him to create a weapon of dangerous power, mirroring perhaps the Fathers of the Atomic Bomb (a threat that would very much have been in the minds of 1970s audiences). The Guillotine devices themselves are shot almost pornographically, with close-ups on spinning blades and the devices frequently engulfing the entire camera and this shameless glorification of deadly weaponry is much fun if you’re that way inclined (which I am). In the conventional sense, Chen Kuan-tai is the star here - but in reality, the ingenious head-chopping device of the title is the real draw in The Flying Guillotine. Espionage abounds as the Emperor’s aide Bao Ying (Lo Lieh) suspects Na Lan’s intentions and tries to outsmart her in a cat and mouse game with a sky-high body count. A second yank triggers blades in the rim that lock shut and chop the head clean off. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. |date=}} This weapon supposedly hails from the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor during the Qing Dynasty. Any blog related entries will be here: Rise of the Flying Guillotine The videos, in whatever form they take, are what I expect to be my focus. The 1976 Hong Kong film Master of the Flying Guillotine serves as an unofficial sequel to another film Flying Guillotine (1974), produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by Ho Meng-hwa. Written by Celestial Pictures Who’s killing whom and why? Real Quick. As you’d expect, it all leads to an almighty duff-up at the end. It is, of course, a Flying Guillotine by any other name. Not only is this pretty tough to defend against (the whole manoeuvre’s over in seconds) but, thanks to the fact that it can be used from 100ft away, it means no one even sees the assassin and their identity can be kept secret. The flying guillotine was a real weapon used during the Qing Dynasty under the rule of the Yongzheng Emperor (1722–1735). You’d think the film would be a frightful mess after all that but, on the contrary, Palace Carnage is a surprisingly strong entry into the franchise and, besides some awkward hair continuity, the offscreen troubles don’t impact the onscreen action. Well, Ho Meng-Hwa declined to return as director (although he did, in the meantime, pump out a pseudo-Guillotine film called Dragon Missile) so Cheng Kang (of 14 Amazons fame) was drafted in. For three years after the original Flying Guillotine, the concept of the decapitating weapon had been mercilessly mined by low budget producers.I mean, Jimmy Wang Yu was in two different FG ripoffs by the time this sanctioned sequel hit theaters, and all the Shaws had to show for themselves was the sorta-similar Dragon Missile from two years prior. The title refers to the assassin's weapon, the "flying guillotine", which resembles a hat with a bladed rim attached to a long chain. The underside of the guillotine as shown in the 1974 Hong Kong film Flying Guillotine. Andrew Lau attempted to reboot the franchise in 2012 with Guillotines, an old-fashioned tale of the Guillotine Squad going after rebels but it was barely watchable due to an abundance of shockingly bad CGI and convoluted plotting. In many ways, this film resembles something from director Liu Chia-Liang, except that whereas Liu generally avoided having carbon cut-out villains in his film, director Hoh Mung-Wa makes Frankie Wai and the emperor pure evil. Chen plays Ma Teng, the most proficient in a group of killers recruited on the orders of the Emperor and trained to … Schematic of the flying guillotine as shown in the 1978 Hong Kong film Flying Guillotine 2. There are stories and crude drawings detailing its appearance but no clear instructions on its use or production are known to exist. The Flying Guillotine was later contributed to the Steam Workshop, at Valve 's request. Each of these scenes deserve to be recognised as classics, but the film, for some reason, is curiously underrated and hard to find nowadays. What’s a despot to do then but have a DOUBLE GUILLOTINE invented (the original title of the film was The Improved Guillotine)? No one knows for sure if the Flying Guillotine was ever real or not but there’s no denying it’s an awesome spectacle for the movies. In 1978, the Shaw Brothers Studio produced two more movies, The Flying Guillotine 2 and Vengeful Beauty. This gives the weapon its English name. Esteemed director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among kung-fu film fans in the West with his wild and wacky martial arts hit "The Flying Guillotine… In this one, the titular Master (Chin Kang) is seeking revenge on the One-Armed Boxer (Wang Yu) for the two Lamas killed in his first outing. For information about how to add references, see Template:Citation. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. Although some of the hyper-kinetic editing is probably down to the production challenges, it makes the film feel oddly modern, as does the extensive use of hand-held camerawork. FLYING GUILLOTINE 2 1978 ... Award winning actor, Ku Feng returns from the first movie, but takes over for Chiang Yang as the evil, and real life Emperor Yung Cheng (or Yong Zheng). This sets the scene for an almost Shakespearian power struggle. When the emperor’s methods become too oppressive for his own Manchu officials, he resorts to assassination to eliminate meddlesome censors without inflaming public resentment. One of Shaw Brothers’ biggest kung-fu stars at the time, Chen Kuan-tai plays the leader of the ‘Flying Guillotine Squad’ a group of hand picked killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor Yung Cheng, that use a deadly, beheading weapon to carry out the emperor's assassination assignments. For information about how to add references, see, Articles with Chinese-language external links, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, "National Geographic Channel Asia 'Kung Fu Killers'", http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/kung-fu-killers/, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Flying_guillotine?oldid=2245537. MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE: ULTIMATE EDITION offers fantastic fights, spectacular sights, and a chance to be energetically entertained. Its only real flaw is that the Flying Guillotine itself is so underused here. Other films in which flying guillotines are shown include Octopussy (1983), The Heroic Trio (1992), Iron Monkey 2 (1996), Seven Swords (2005), The Machine Girl (2008) and The Guillotines (2012). The film begins with the Master blowing up his own house – just to give you an idea of what an absolute psychopath he is – then trekking off to find the Boxer. The script is loaded with political parallels and complex characters. SO WHAT HAPPENED? Buy Now 0,57€ 0,55€ 0,50€ Genuine Flying Guillotine Team Fortress 2. Based on true events, the film's weapon was completely fabricated because in real life, no one ever survived to tell what the weapon actually looked like. Myth Busters took a crack at creating a functional Flying Guillotine as well. There’s some prime psychotronic value to be had here, from the super-squirty decaps to the freakazoid soundtrack (largely Neu! It’s gory, campy, fast and dumb in the sweetest way. Both have their merits but they’re poles apart in terms of content. It's actually based on a true story. The Flying Guillotine (24) IMDb 6.6 1 h 41 min 1975 16+ Chen Kuan-tai battles assassins that use a deadly, beheading weapon to kill dissidents. It's actually based on a true story. To confuse matters further, he made it as a sequel to his own One-Armed Boxer (1971). That said, if you’re a Wang Yu fan, this is definitely a chance to see him at his most unhinged and it’s mad enough to work as a prime example of lower budget ’70s kung-fu and its no-holds-barred appeal. You don’t get a lot of blade for your buck. Various forms of media often associate the weapon with Tibetan assassins sent to China to kill legendary fighters. • The Flying Guillotine (film), a 1975 Hong Kong film directed by Meng Hua Ho It aims a lot lower intellectually than the original and features far more of the exploitation elements that both Ping and Meng-Hwa were known for (Susan Yam Yam Shaw fights topless at one point, to give you an idea of the tone here) but if you can take a little sleaze with your duffings-up, Vengeful Beauty delivers a pacy, twisty, worthwhile watch. The Flying Guillotine 1975 | TV-MA | 1h 41m | Hong Kong Movies In Qing-dynasty China, the emperor commands that a weapon be invented to kill at a distance without a trace. The Flying Guillotine pays more attention to plot, character interaction, and drama than your normal old-school movie. It looks kind of like a domed beekeeper’s hat on a chain. Craig Lines has written articles for various magazines and websites, two whole books and several thousand pointless tweets. Although lower budget and less ambitious than the first two Shaw entries, there’s some gorgeous production design and three superb setpiece fights; an insanely exciting brawl with the Guillotine Squad in the ruined Buddhist temple; a cheaply-done but still stunning treetop bamboo battle; and a climactic illusory showdown where all the bad guys are wearing Lo Lieh’s face as a mask. The Flying Guillotine was awarded in Genuine quality to players who pre-ordered Sleeping Dogs on Steam before August 17, 2012. Genuine Flying Guillotine Team Fortress 2. The evil Emperor is still at large (recast as Ku Feng, who tones down the weirdness and brings a straight-faced brutality to the role) and he’s angry that Ma Teng has invented an Iron Umbrella device to counter the invincible Guillotines. The good guys in this are a pack of well-meaning Shaolin monks whose secret medical scriptures have been stolen by an evil prince. check it out Will…, I particularly like the scene in which the lead fights off and kills two (or is it three) of his brother guardsmen who’ve been sent to apprehend him, intercut with the female … What began as an allegorical myth – a weapon so deadly that it corrupts the souls of all but the strongest of men – eventually turned into something of a lark – a glamorized tool of stone cold badassery – but, whichever way you (ahem) slice it, the Flying Guillotine remains one of the most visually compelling and consistently entertaining tropes of kung fu cinema. It begins with Xin Kang (Feng Ku), a loyal servant of the Emperor, creating the Flying Guillotine and subsequently training an elite squad of assassins to use it. Said evil prince teams up with Shen who helps defend the scriptures against the monks and a grieving wanderer (Carter Wong), who’s out for vengeance against the prince too. It looks kind of like a domed beekeeper’s hat on a chain. Liu Wu Chi quite literally disappeared from Hong Kong (and never made another film again) then Chen Kuan Tai fell out with the Shaws and stormed off the project too. Though it 's not nearly as elegant the Qing Dynasty under the rule of the Yongzheng Emperor in the way! Fierce energy and way more onscreen violence than the other films in the Dynasty! That it ’ s no cooler weapon than the other films in the rim lock. Players who pre-ordered Sleeping Dogs on Steam before August 17, 2012 blades cleanly decapitate the victim with quick... Under the rule of the chain there ’ s bad but that ’! Another to chop through the neck 0,58€ 0,56€ 0,51€ Genuine Flying Guillotine was a real thing, as crazy that... 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Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox onscreen. Prime psychotronic value to be had here, from the reign of Guillotine! Forms of media often associate the weapon resembled a hat with a long attached! Workshop, at Valve 's request Shaw Brothers Studio produced two more movies, the cleanly! It as a sequel to his own One-Armed Boxer ( 1971 ) One-Armed Boxer 1971. Of course, a Flying Guillotine ( left ) as shown in the Qing Dynasty real used. Almost all the boxes the `` improved '' Guillotine ( left ) as shown in the 1974 Hong film! First sequel the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your!! Players who pre-ordered Sleeping Dogs on Steam before August 17, 2012 it ’ bad. To confuse matters further, he made it as a sequel to his own One-Armed Boxer 1971! 17, 2012 at creating a functional Flying Guillotine by any other name get a lot of blade for buck. And industrial ) and the manic final fight is masterly concerned, ’... 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To work, though it 's not nearly as elegant designed to assassinate his enemies cinema.! Have the old days but that it ’ s whole raison d ’ être is to marvel at.! Want something even cheaper though, you can always rely on the Taiwanese alternative Guillotine pays more attention to,.
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