Master of the Flying Guillotine/Review 2

"And the survey said you're dead/Fatal Flying Guillotine chops off your fucking head" - The Wu Tang Clan.



If the RZA, ODB, Method Man and the other members of The Wu think highly enough of Master Of The Flying Guillotine to not only sample it on more than one occasion but to have it inspire their rhymes then who am I to argue? 
No, I think it's better and healthier if I just say that I agree wholeheartedly with the boys and that Master Of The Flying Guillotine is a kung-fu masterpiece.
 Besides, Pete doesn't pay me enough to take on those fellas all by myself.



Released in 1976, Master Of The Flying Guillotine is a direct sequel to One Armed Boxer, also known as The One Armed Boxer 2 (highly original) and The One Armed Boxer vs The Flying Guillotine (lot of thought went into those two titles) and stars everyone's favorite mental Jimmy Wang Yu.

 After two of his disciples were killed at the end of the first film (sorry for the spoiler, but hey, you should've watched the first one before checking out the sequel), Fung Sheng Wu Chi (Kang Kam) vows revenge on the One Armed Boxer (Jimmy Wang Yu). 
This is not as easy as it may sound due to the fact that Fung Sheng Wu Chi is blind, so instead of just wandering around aimlessly, hoping to bump into Jimmy Wang Yu, he takes his Flying Guillotine and decides to kill any one armed man he happens to come across.
 Which he does at every given opportunity.


Meanwhile, trying to live the quiet life, the One Armed Boxer has opened a martial arts school where he teaches his pupils all sorts of cool things like how to run up walls and walk across cellings, which as we all know is the perfect way to keep yourself incognito.
 Eventually, after some detective work that Columbo would be proud of, the local martial arts master discovers his identity (yeah that must've been hard "Who's that?", "He's a One Armed Boxer", "Hmmmm...I wonder if he's the same one? After all there's an abundance of them around these parts.") and he is invited to attend the local martial arts tournament, which he agrees to but only as a non-combatant, and while there he is tracked down by Fung Sheng Wu Chi who proceeds to spend the next 10 minutes using his fatal flying guillotine to chop off everyones fucking head.


Managing to escape the slaughter, Jimmy Wang Yu disbands his school and, after some dawdling that provides Fung Sheng Wu Chi (who is now assisted by two of the fighters from the tournament he didn't kill) ample opportunity to show up and start lopping off some more heads. They make for the mountains to lay a trap for the blind monk and his followers.



If you have never seen this movie I only have one thing to say.
 Stop reading this review and go watch it now.
 Seriously, I'll wait. 
Back? 
Awesome wasn't it?! Directed, written by and staring Jimmy Wang Yu, this is 90 minutes of pure Kung-Fu heaven and ranks alongside any of the greatest martial arts movies ever made.
 When one person is at the helm of a film alone, covering the three major bases there's always the chance that it could become a major vanity project (Kevin Costner anyone?) but Jimmy Wang Yu is clever, or maybe just mental enough to put ego aside and let the story tell itself. There are many different fighting styles laced through-out this picture, the action is brilliantly choreographed and the final fight between The One Armed Boxer and The Blind Monk is one of the best ever captured by celluloid. Plus, it's got a flying guillotine in it, what more could you ask for?

!

Neil Gray is a writer from the UK. The story goes that he was invented in a laboratory experiment that went horribly wrong and has spent years devouring every movie form and film genre that was foolish enough to pass his way until he is now nothing more than a hideous monstrosity, more celluloid than man.