Greetings gentle readers, welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a classic from Kung Fu Theater: Master of the Flying Guillotine.
Reviews:
DVD Talk says:
The best way I can describe why Master of The Flying Guillotine (1975 aka. One-Armed Boxer 2, One-Armed Boxer Vs the Flying Guillotine) is a classic and a film I’ve always immensely enjoyed is that for a good many years I was a smoker. Like the warm tickling rush of nicotine to a pair of lungs, Master of The Flying Guillotine is a complete guilty pleasure that leaves you feeling high off its empty b-movie fun. I love a good emotionally and intellectually stimulating movie, but there are times when Cries and Whispers just won’t click. When it is 1AM, you are with a group of wiseass friends, and the time is ripe for a 70’s action crowd pleaser, Master of The Flying Guillotine fits the bill perfectly.
letterboxd says:
Every now and then you’re able to find that one magnificently low budget masterpiece!
With Master of the Flying Guillotine, Jimmy Wang Yu (who was never a stranger to writing, directing, and starring in his own kung fu passion projects) takes his gimmicky character from One-Armed Boxer and drastically soups up the world around him, as if the film were a high-kicking episode of Pimp My Ride. Taking/plagiarizing cues from Enter the Dragon, where cavalcades of colorful fighters are brought together via a gladiator-style kung fu tournament, Jimmy now treats us to wondrous treasures that include: people fighting while balancing on sword tips, a man with elongated Mr. Fantastic arms, a guy choking another dude out with his hair braid, a chick cat-clawing someone to shreds, a giant human Goliath who gets taken down by the classic eyes-balls 1-2 combo, the act of punching someone though a roof and into his own coffin, an overly specific plot that requires there exist an abnormally prevalent number of capable one-armed kung-fu masters, and, best of all, the titular MotFG, a blind Gandalf-looking monk assassin who jumps 30 ft. in the air and wields a 100 ft. chain with a bright red beekeeper’s mask that can cleanly decapitate people.
Culture Vulture says:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for whatever elegance and classiness it has, is an homage to the kind of movie represented by Master of the Flying Guillotine–that is to say, kung fu pulp. And while Crouching Tiger is the superior movie in every way – production value and design, acting, cinematography, action choreography – it owes a debt to the likes of Master of the Flying Guillotine. It is a debt repaid since this 1975 kung fu adventure would not likely now be restored and revived without the popularity of Crouching Tiger.
My take:
If you were a fan of cheesy Kung Fu movies growing up, you’ve hit gold. It doesn’t get any crazier than this: fake beards and eyelashes, gallons of ersatz blood, wild fighting styles that defy the laws of physics and biology, weapons that simply cannot exist in reality, heads sailing hither and thither. The actual storyline exists simply to string together the over-the-top fights into a movie. The soundtrack is…eclectic. I had fun and I think you will too. One note: this is actually a sequel to The One Armed Boxer, so you may want to watch that first if you care about such things. Totally not necessary in this case.
Director: Jimmy Wang Yu
Notable actors: Jimmy Wang Yu
Plot (Spoilers!):
The One Armed Boxer has a problem: an imperial assassin wants him dead. Not only because he was a supporter of the previous imperial throne but because the Boxer killed two of the assassin’s students. The assassin, who is blind but from his facial twitches can apparently sense movement and objects with his eyelashes, utilizes a unique weapon. It’s a flying guillotine, it looks like an unfolding hat on the end of a chain. The twist is that when the hat lands on your head, it takes your head off.
There is a big martial arts tournament in town and the assassin is headed that way to see if he can find the One Armed Boxer there. He kills another one armed man along the way and yet another at the tournament but neither were his man. The real One Armed Boxer was in attendance but left before the assassin arrived and started killing people. Our hero seems safe but the assassin has three henchmen who begin to search for him as well.
Using his wits as much as his skill, the Boxer manages to dispatch the three underlings one after the other. The assassin is another problem though. He is too tough to take on head-to-head and the Boxer knows it. So our hero devises a clever scheme to first partially break the flying guillotine using bamboo poles, then lures the assassin into a coffin shop that has been booby-trapped by the Boxer earlier. Even without the assassin’s guillotine in full working order, it’s a tough fight. Only after taking some heavy damage is the Boxer able to punch the assassin through the roof of the coffin shop and into a waiting coffin.
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> gallons of ersatz blood
I weep with joy at the eclectitude of the Sunday Morning Movies!
For those who might like the fake teeth and beards without the sanguine sprays, may I suggest Return of the Master Killer aka Return to the 36th Chamber. It’s actually a comedy about learning at the Shaolin Temple. Great kung fu, high quality bamboo! No deaths.
Hey, Abbot!
Are these sorts of films the eastern equivalent to the old spaghetti westerns?
Chinese “wuxia” and Japanese “chanbara” would probably count as the equivalents of Italian “peplum” and Italian “spaghetti western”.
I presume the Hong-Kong gangster movies (à la John Woo) would correspond to the Italian “poliziottesco”, but I do not know what could be the Asian equivalents of the “giallo” and “mondo” genres.
Yes, once upon a time, Italy ruled exploitation cinematography.
Wuxia has an extra ingredient, the cultural aspect of martial arts. Embedded in many movies are various styles, with forms performed by experts. At least one was performed by a grandmaster. A way of transmission.
Another possible candidate:
In the west, most of us have no real idea what WWII meant to the peoples of the Soviet Union. Their losses were staggering – perhaps 27 million dead. But statistics can’t convey the human cost of war. This beautiful 1959 movie tries to do that, with a simple story, fine acting and striking photography.
It might seem a bit corny to our jaded sensibilities but I still found it very moving.
Ballad of a Soldier – Director Grigory Chukhray – 1hr 28mins
https://archive.org/details/ballad-of-a-soldier_202306
I remember that film. I saw it soon after watching “A Dog of Flanders.” Both at a local library film series. Go figure.
As for Hong Kong kung fu cinema, well, that is a very deep rabbit hole. The Shaw brothers were central to much of the trend. “Popular” cinema tells us much about the culture it represents and entertains.
I found half a dozen versions of the “dog of Flanders” on imdb, including Japanese animes and a film dating back to 1914…
Yes. It is a very popular “children’s” story. The one I saw was the 1960 version, probably the version most known by persons of “a certain age group.”
Contrast this story with the essentially American “Old Yeller” and you get a feel for the cultural ethos of both societies. Both stories treat the relationship of a boy and a dog, set against having to deal with a tough world. The novel version of “A Dog of Flanders” hies back to 1872, essentially Victorian in tone. “Old Yeller” comes from 1956 America. Though set in roughly the same historical period, the two cultural ethics are quite different. One is, for want of a better word, European. The other is almost, dare I say it, American Exceptionalist in tone.
Is the genre of a piece with “A Boy and his Dog”, the Don Johnson classic? I want to assume no, but who knows?
I rather like Ellison’s original title of the story; “A Dog and His Boy.”
Uh, Don Johnson and classic in the same sentence?
Remarkable directorial accomplishment even after so many years.
Thanks.
While I believe Wuxia can have tendencies to exaggerate camera movement the discipline here applied of often move the camera vertically and horizontally – use it as an observer instead of turning the camera into a martial actor itself, which performs all kinds of crazy things itself – gives it a very classical and grounded (“Japanese”?) feel and inhances orientation for the viewer.
So even when there is some flying moves (not many here) it is solved with fixed shots. In general much is fixed. An advice I would probably give any martial arts director or CGI-directing in general (although addressing different means, Spielberg justly I believe criticized the lack of orientation as of late in movies.)
Besides corresponding with the subject of many of these stories, which are about control/power – what else is a better proof of control in a narrative sense if not a camera that dissects space (after all what is martial arts if not the control and crossing of space) – with a geometrical “objectivity”. Instead of trying to simulate the contrived, chaotic, emotional psyche of the protagonists.
So one could argue martial arts can be among the most intellectual and sober genres. At least as far as some more „conservative“ film form goes.
The fighting scenes especially in the arena are shot as simply as expertly. Consider how little set-up from the technical side there is beyond what you would do for e.g. a non-martial arts film and compare to the the huge hassle of productions today. But yet the martial arts as such are still the same (which is the reason for their never-ending fascination). Of course needless to add, the insane quality of the actors and martial artists.
From today´s POV noteworthy the long takes and their mis-en-scene. Or the (slow-motion) shots in the fight with the guillotine master
That fight with the old guillotine master in the bird shop is of special beauty. Both on the metaphorical and visual level, among other things the uncontrollability of the birds corresponding with the master´s loss of control in the fight due to the birds irritating him. (“birds-eye-view” shots ;-) Marking the moment when that duel is tilting to the one-armed boxer´s favour.
I personally have the highest regard for those today internationally best known stars who not only are outstanding classical actors but also martial experts in their own right at least as “Western” artists go, e.g. Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Jet Li and so on. With all due respect but compare that to Leonardo Cabriolet…
Not by accident the martial art choreographer stars of the East were the unsung heroes of the Martial Arts surge in Hollywood of the post Matrix era.