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5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I saw this in the theatre just a couple of weeks ago. This movie was not only a big influence on kung-fu movies, but also on the fighting genre of video games. After watching this movie you will notice certain similarities between it and the "Street Fighter" video games. (Including the yogi with the stretching arms.)

The movie is actually the second movie in the "one arm boxer" series. (There are flashbacks to the previous movie.) The blind monk (the master of the flying guillotine) gets word that his two disciples have been killed by the one arm boxer. He goes on a hunt for the one arm boxer. Being blind, he tends to kill a number of the wrong people along the way, but that does not matter to him in the slightest. (Being the nasty next to unkillable uber-villian he is.)

While the blind monk is out looking for the one arm boxer, there is a kung-fu tournement being held. This is a great excuse to have a bunch of martial artists with various styles. Did I mention that this was a fight to the death or severe maiming? There are some great over the top kung-fu battles up until the tournement is interupted by the blind monk. The one arm boxer is , of course, at the tournement.

Many of the styles are just plain impossible. But that is half the fun!

I won't spoil the rest of the film. It is very enjoyable. The print I saw had some odd defects from the negative used to print the film. There are also some scratches and other misc problems. They do not detract from the experience in the slightest. It was also subtitled and not dubbed. Hopefully the DVD will not suffer the same fate as most Chinese films released in the US. (Cut to ribbons and dubbed with bad translations.)

If you are a kung-fu fan, especially of the old Shaw Brothers films, then you will want this one.

It is a big bloody. People do die in this film. It is not one where people just get beaten-up real bad and then run away. People can and do get hurt in this one. The film is probably better because of that.

One of the best kung-fu movies of all time.

Few films enjoy the moniker of a "cult classic." Few films have a one-armed hero, a blind antagonist who wields a Flying Guillotine, steal German techno music for the soundtrack, a martial arts tournament in the middle of the film, and have been inspirational to Quentin Tarantino and video games. Master of the Flying Guillotine (aka One-armed Boxer vs. The Flying Guillotine) is one of several old-school martial art films to take on an iconic stature amongst Asian film fanatics, amongst them include Five Deadly Venoms, Fist of Fury and Drunken Master. This movie is one of my favorite Taiwanese films - produced by First Films.

It is 1730 during the reign of Emperor Yung Cheng of the Manchu Dynasty and is in the case of all films about this oppressive era the protagonists are supporters of the Ming Dynasty. The awesome antagonist is a blind (disguised) Buddhist named Fung Sheng Wu Chi played with demonic fury by Kam Kong (Half a Loaf of Kung Fu). He wears Buddhist garb, has his own lifted musical theme of "Super 16" by the German group Neu! (they also use "Super" by Neu! in the opening theme and "Mitternacht", "Morgensparziergang" and "Kometenmelodie 2" by Kraftwerk in the film), throws bombs that remind me of Tim from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and carries an ingenious weapon called the Flying Guillotine, it was used earlier in the movie The Flying Guillotine (1975). This weapon is a round circular disk with serrated edges on the outside and a retractable net with sharp knives that can be thrown by its user to go over the head of its opponent and with a jerk of the attached chain rip off the head. It is also be folded and fit in your pocket! With this weapon and his learned knowledge that his students Chow Lung and Chow Fu were killed by the One-Armed Boxer he goes off in search of his revenge.

The One-Armed Boxer (Jimmy Wang Yu reprising his most successful role as well as directing this film) is the sifu of a martial arts school where he shows his students how to fight, walk on empty baskets and to walk on ceilings (it is all in how you breathe). His students want to enter a martial arts tournament run by Wu Chang Sheng of the Eagle Claw school but he fears that government might find them out. He does agree to go watch the tournament though.

The tournament is one of the many highlights of the film. While the tournament film was nothing new (Enter the Dragon was done several years earlier), the approach of many styles and deadly fighting would go on to influence video games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. There are nine fights that range in quality but most are memorable. The first is Long Spear Chang Chia Yu (actually uses a three-section staff) versus Long Stick Ho Po Wei. This is a short but decent fight that is more memorable because the underrated Lau Kar Wing (also one of the stunt coordinators) plays Chia Yu and that it is more calm than the fights about the happen. However there is much more: there is a Mongolian who looks more like a silent movie star (with his dastardly false mustache) than a Mongolian. There is a double fatality. There are crotch kicks, eye pokes, pole-fighting, a one-armed fighter who accidently shows his other arm, a cheating Thai fighter and an Indian fighter who can stretch his limbs (like Dhalsim in Street Fighter) to attack his opponents. One of my favorite fights is the fifth fight between Eagle Claws Wu Shao Tieh (Doris Lung) and a Monkey Boxer Ma Wa Kung who is small, agile and carries the fight between the two (being comic relief he will not win but he will not die either).

But this tournament is just a diversion. The main plot will continue after the abrupt conclusion of the tournament. There are still several fights to go and two are unforgettable. The first memorable fight involves the One-Armed Boxer vs. the Thai fighter. Though Wang Yu would have trouble with plot, dialogue and making sense in many of his films he has always had an interesting knack on weaponry and situations. Here he uses a small metal house to trap the barefoot Thai fighter while the OAB's students are piling wood and setting underneath the house ablaze making this a giant hotbox. This fight to the death is a bit difficult and is sometimes hard to watch but nonetheless a fantastic bout. Sometimes the hero must have some sadistic element in fighting his enemies. The last fight is an awesome inevitable confrontation between the protagonist and Fung Sheng. Here is where Fung Yu's ingenuity at situational martial arts comes to blossom. I will not tempt to spoil this be explaining it (just in case you have not watched it). I will say that it is the perfect ending to this momentous martial arts film.

There are a couple of good Master of the Flying Guillotine R1 DVDs out there by Pathfinder. Pathfinder has a 2002 (Ultimate Edition) and 2004 (2-disc Anniversary Edition) release. The latest release is preferable because of the anamorphic video transfer, additional interviews with Jimmy Wang Yu and an insert booklet with a several goods articles including the history of the Flying Guillotine, the movie itself and one on Wang Yu. It is important to mention to extreme collectors that the commentaries are different on both disks. The first one has Wade Major and Andy Klein, the second adds Alex Luu to the mix. I was not particularly impressed by the second commentary. While they acknowledged their mistakes in the first one (such as calling this a Hong Kong film) they still did not add as much factual information as they could (name the music that was lifted instead of saying a German band) and they digressed a few too many times. While this film could use a better transfer (this is still a decent transfer and both Pathfinder versions seem to have the same quality, I just wish Criterion would pick this up; wishful bizarre thinking I know) it is great to see in a good-enough widescreen version with Mandarin dialogue.

There are two types of classic movies:
1. the "so well made, performed, and executed"
2. the extremely influential or 'cult status' types.

Master of the Flying Guillotine falls under the latter. Influential to video games with its gimmicky fighters, it's flying guillotine, memorable characters(one-armed boxer, blind monk), and various fighting techniques. It has deservedly attained cult status because of these and more. The fight scenes, including a long tournament of numerous(although fairly brief) fights between different contenders is worth the watch alone. Most of the fight scenes are good, esp. for a movie this old. The only scenes that kinda disappoint are the ones that contain the one-armed boxer in them(Jimmy Wany Yu just isn't that impressive in his martial arts or charismatic in his performance, resulting in more than one veiwer rooting for his opponents instead i'm sure). There are some cheesy elements like the dubbing, Jimmy walking up walls(???), some less than convincing decapitations...then again, this movie has flying guillotine-induced decapitations, Jimmy walking up walls(!!!), and classic cheesy 70's dubbing! See, it's all how you look at things or perceive them.

Anyhow, the dvd has a good picture quality, a lot more extras(including audio commentary, deleted scenes, original languge option, etc) than usually afforded to old-school kung fu films, and again a great extended tournament fight that is reason enough to watch if not buy this dvd. I'm glad I have this in my collection anyway. Definitely recommended, just don't expect the first definition of classic.

"Master of Flying Guillotine" is a Chinese guy looking to off all one-armed Kung Fu masters in this somewhat poorly dubbed and transferred 1975 action film. There isn't much good to say about either the dubbing or the transfer, as the screen fades to shades of gray and black occasionally during the film.

There is much good to say about the high octane action that transpires throughout every minute of this classic flick, including a lengthy scene during a Kung Fu tournament where the losers of individual battles often died.

This is a loud, gory, bloody action film that will satisfy anyone looking for an action fantasy anytime, anyplace. Hardly a moment goes by without some exciting form of fighting action incluidng the titled character, who owns a thingamabob that's connected to a chain. He throws it at people, it lands on them, covering their head, the saw engages and...there's the title of the movie!

Buy, rent or program this if you like action, action, action and don't mind seeing 50-100 Chinese men bite the dust in gory action circa 1975.

This review is referring specifically to the new 2-Disc Anniversary Edition of MotFG. Needless to say, this movie is a kung fu classic and this remaster looks and sounds excellent (as good as it can get). The first disc includes the original Mandarin version, while disc 2 includes the dubbed version. However, on Disc 2 (the English dubbed disc) there is a glitch which keeps chapter 10 from playing (roughly 32 minutes into the movie). I don't know how widespread this problem may be (or not), but keep this in mind.

i got to see this film in a theater in pittsburgh a few months ago on a beautiflly restored 35mm print... it was amazing. definately one of the best old school kung fu flicks of all time, and this DVD version is very well transferred.

i'll just say a few things about the DVD, since so many other people have really reviewed the film. the colors of the video transfer are only SLIGHTLY faded, and there are a few scratches here and there. the DVD provides both the original chinese language track (thankfully) and an english dubbed track (which actually isn't too awful). the subtitles are bold, yellow, and outlined and very easy to read. for some reason, when watching the film dubbed, it would occassionally pop into the chinese audio track and subtitles for half a scene here and there. i have no idea why it does that and my friend had the same problem on his DVD, but it's not a big drawback.

overall, this is an amazingly preserved and transferred DVD version of this film, well worth it. it's a shame all classic kung fu films don't get this great treatment upon US release.

what more could you say about a film in the top 10. this stars one of my favorite actors jimmy wang yu and a collection of all-stars like lung fei (win without a knife yakuma), lau kar wing, jack long, kuo chui (the one fighting lau kar wing), kam kong (flying guillotine fung zing wu chi), wong wing san (yoga master and arguably the greatest fight choreographer ever and brother of wong chi sang). the characters are unforgettable and the fight scenes choreographed by none other than the lau bros. (lau kar leung aka liu chia liang and lau kar wing aka liu chia yung). the music is banging and this movie inspired all types of famous heads like the wu-tang clan, quentin tarrantino, the street fighter video game creators, and others. hands down the best martial arts film of 1975. jimmy wang yu never got the credit in my opinion for creating such freaky and memorable characters and movies all throughout his career. dating back from the 60's he was in alot of swordplay films including asia's 1st $1 million dollar grossing film "the one armed swordsman, golden swallow, return of the one armed swordsman, the chinese boxer and return of the chinese boxer throughout the course of the 70's when he left shaw bros. and went independent. the thing that amazes me is that he isnt a real martial artists he's a swimmer but his athletic ability is sensational and makes for his lack of martial arts skills. also this movie has a great commentary track and the dvd transfer is little sloppy but worth the purchase.

Absolute 5 STARS!

OK PEOPLE, LISTEN UP!: This dvd 'Ultimate Edition' of Master of the Flying Guillotine is in fact the ultimate edition. There is a reason for this: You are NOT purchasing/watching the shortened U.S. tv and Chinese/U.S. theater release of Master of the Flying Guillotine (MFG), you are getting the COMPLETE and ORIGINAL movie in it's ENTIRETY as it was produced in 1975. That is because the shortend MFG version, which they play here in the States on tv and cable and was shown in Chinese & U.S. movie theaters, has 12 minutes of scenes deleted for the Chinese Theater time tables (of under two hours). Then that shortened version was dubbed and released in the U.S., then later made available for tv. In fact the producers of this DVD format you see available here (the Ultimate Edition) have done Gung Fu movie history and fans a tremendously HUGE favor by FINDING the missing and deleted scenes and adding those sacred 12 minutes back into the film on this dvd. Those deleted scenes are ONLY available in original CHINESE language (Mandarin and/or Cantonese) formats and have not been dubbed. There are also some minor color and image issues in this dvd because, again, this dvd is pieced together from those Chinese portions of the film the dvd producers found and put back into the movie. They did not dub this movie, that is the American version. They also did not go and dub the 12 minutes into English. But it's dvd, so set your subtitles ON and you will be fine!!! And It's also letter boxed, so those subtilttles are mostly off the screen.

MFG is a classic Gung Fu movie that takes place in the 1700's. It has the most inventive weapon ever created for the movies...a FLYING GUILLOTINE weileded by a blind assassin who seeks revenge! There are previous Flying Guillotine movie/s(haven't seen them) and One-arm Boxer(also starring Jimmy Wang Yu) movies as well but produced by the Shaw Brothers (and a different style of flying guillotine). This movie has some awesome fighting sequences (that may have influenced Mortal Kombat game makers?), bizzare special effects and interestingly evil music. Also excellent characters like the Blind Guillotine Assasin with twitchy ears, the Hindu Yoga Master with stretching arms and Indian accent, and Win-without-a-knife: who does have hidden knives in his weapons (who looks a lot like Kung Lao from MK3 the game) not to mention the One-armed Boxer with the Iron Fist fighting and punching technique, who can walk on the ceiling and later has to turn to wisdom and creative tactics to beat his foes in an ending that makes you want to jump up and cheer! It'll knock YOU through the roof!!!

This movie is so kick-butt that I like to watch it again and again. This dvd is the complete package, I'm glad I bought it - I searched for it for years. Very excellent Kung Fu Theater-style movie, and a MUST BUY!!! Forget that some few moments are not dubbed and that the picture quality has it's moments and that you can see one 'one-armed' guy's other arm sticking out of his shirt at the 'tournament'. 5 STARS!!!! I also love "the Shaolin Master Killer" You may also like "5 Deadly Venoms". Of course Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies are awesome too, but this one is a cult classic!

Having seen the restored, uncut version at a screening here in Los Angeles, needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the new DVD release!

The team at Pathfinder Pictures went thru a lot of effort to locate an original negative in China, and their effort definitely panned out for the release of MFG - Ultimate: 12 minutes of restored footage, and FINALLY a very clean print presented in the original language AND the correct 2.35 ratio. Thankfully, they also include the horrible Australian / English dubbing that make the original so much fun to watch on TV!!

If you've previously bought the "Sinister Cinema" bootleg or some other grey market copy, junk it!! No more scratched, washed out print! No more 5th generation video quality! No more panned and scanned or anamorphic 8 foot tall people on screen!! Finally, this is the LEGIT, definitive MFG! Get it!

First I'll say that this movie is a classic kung-fu movie providing everything you could ask for, including:
Blind villian
Random fight tournament
One-armed hero
Flying guillotine
Many different types of fighters
The precursor to Dhalsim from Street Fighter2
Booby Traps
One and even two hit combos

After reading the other reviews here I feel the need to talk about the quality of the DVD. I think a lot of reviewers are being way too picky with their expectations. This is a freaking late 70's kung-fu movie that was made overseas with a budget of a couple thousand dollars I'm guessing. If you want to see a slick and glossy movie with perfect quality then rent Jet Li's newest straight to video movie possibly starring DMX.

I understand that the quality COULD be better, but who cares? What do you really expect when you buy this kind of movie? Sure, at some parts the dubbing suddenly switched to subtitles and then switched back a minute later, but that just adds to the whole cheesy kung-fu experience. If this DVD wasn't good enough for you quaility otakus then grow a pair and restore the movies yourself. Seriously, eat it.