★★★½
Master of the Flying Guillotine is a wild name for a martial arts film, but it very much delivers. It’s a sequel to One-Armed Boxer (1971) but by no means do you need to watch the first film in order to follow this one as it stands completely on its own. Like the best martial arts films it gets straight to the action. The first four minutes are the most exposition we get, we are told that an imperial assassin is hunting the One-Armed Boxer (our protagonist) for killing his two students and then we are off. There’s a martial arts tournament in the film’s first half and not only is it a great excuse to feature lots of fun and varied action, but it also gets us acquainted with the key players of the film. It seems as if every fighter has a unique weapon and/or fighting style which keeps the fights interesting, some of the fighters even incorporate the environment into their confrontations which goes some way in removing the artificiality from the film’s world.
The biggest draw to Master of the Flying Guillotine is its b-movie feel, there’s the clichéd (but nonetheless still fun) reaction shots with quick zooms and dramatic sound effects, but where this film stands on its own is how overtly fantastical it is. There are other martial arts films which feature light fantasy elements, namely different kung-fu techniques that allow the users to do superhuman things, but here we have a character that extends his arms mid combat which is so much more fun, creative and explicit in thought and execution as opposed to just saying that a character is invulnerable to blades for example. Despite this cartoony veil, Master of the Flying Guillotine never mocks itself, all outlandish features are treated seriously as to not undercut any of the film’s tension. The main villain is accompanied with his own theme; a bassy electronic droning beat which was unexpected for this type of film but perfectly captures his power and foreboding aura.
I’ve touched on the film being clichéd in areas and I feel there are things that you just need to accept if you are going to watch a martial arts film from the 70s. The film is dubbed and this can take a little time to get used to if you are not already. The actor dubbing the One-Armed Boxer sounds oddly similar to Matt Berry, so when he sees a guy jumping over a 20ft wall and says ‘…nice jumping’ it’s hard not to find it incredibly comical. The sound effects don’t really have much variety, the amount of times you’ll hear that odd wind thud sound across many films when there’s a strike is another thing to be prepared for. To Master of the Flying Guillotine’s credit I was impressed by its unique sound design at times; the guy with snake-like appendages has rattling sound effects whenever his hits make contact which was a cool little addition.
Master of the Flying Guillotine is still remembered alongside classic Shaw Brothers productions despite being an independent Taiwanese film. I find it hard to believe that the film manages to do as much as it does despite not having studio backing. It’s a fun time and one I’d recommend to anyone wanting to get into martial arts films. Unfortunately most, if not all, of the music in the film was used without their copyright holder’s permission so I’d be shocked if it could get a blu-ray release from a company like Arrow Films to accrue more fans. This film gets straight to the point, has so much variety, great fight scenes and all culminates to a very long and very satisfying finale whilst being incredibly charming in the process. 3 and a half stars out of 5.
