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Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Xin Kang (Ku Feng) is tasked by The Emperor with coming up with a new method for eliminating scholars and intellectuals (not to mention other government officials) who deviate from the Party Line. Watching jugglers in the town square, he comes up with THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. While the contraption as presented here (and elsewhere, in various other films) may be improbable, it serves its cinematic purpose. The Emperor is so impressed with it that he assigns a special squad of assassins to perfect the killing technique(s) to be employed. Ma Teng (Chen Kuan-Ti) quickly becomes a standout, but when he comes close to accidentally killing fellow assassin Ah Kun, Kun decides to get rid of Ma Teng by accusing him of plotting treason. When Ma Teng expresses qualms about the assassinations of several government officials, it's only icing on the cake for Kun. It turns out that Ma Teng isn't the only assassin having second thoughts. Xin Kang and Ah Kun go after the dissenters. "Our heads don't belong to us any more," Kang says. Will Ma Teng survive, or will The Emperor's assassins take his head? THE FLYING GUILLOTINE, while it doesn't contain a LOT of fight scenes, is good, old-fashioned storytelling and well worth your time.

Was this the film that started the whole decapitating fad?A very atypical Shaw Bros story here that doesn't involve your typical training to enter Shaolin temple or revenge motif. Instead, you're not sure who to root for or jeer at. My favorite scenes include anyone with the flying guillotine. Just seeing those bodies headless and limbs flailing (the red paint smears were a great gory touch!). By the end, there's double crossing and power corrupts. Really great use of Shaw Studios sets and the colors and costumes looked great on this Celestial DVD release. Also, stick with it and you get a great finish to boot. So, while not a classic Shaw Bros film, this one is a "cut" above the rest.

I found this on DVD -- some sort of low-budget or bootleg pan-and-scan transfer -- and since it wasn't marked very well hoped it might be the Yu Wang film. Alas it wasn't but this, I suppose the first of the three films involving the flying beekeeping hat of death, stands out on its own terms. We meet the inventor of the flying guillotine, complete with an origin scene involving a lot of chin scratching. The basic premise is that an evil emperor has a few grudges and trains a crack team of assassins who use the deadly decapitator to carry out his will (complete with a decent training sequence). A few guys on the team get hit in the conscience (with shades of Macbeth) and the story gets moving. A hero emerges, the villains reveal themselves, it's a whole lot more shaded than I expected.Be forewarned that this isn't a film of great fight scenes. Yu Wang brought those to the flying guillotine genre later. This is an HK action flick with a plot -- more like a grainy, overdubbed Die Hard. Perhaps a shot at emulating Kurasawa or Leone without the budget and great equipment, plus an awesome metalworker with a blade fetish. There are great fights but the first kill without a clean separation of mind and body happens around the 40 minute mark.You'll also see some nice early wire work -- the assassins bound silently atop buildings in ways that would evolve to Crouching Tiger. The fight scenes are there, they just aren't the whole point of the movie and the guys fight more like real grunts than Bruce or Jackie. The guillotines might here have been like seeing light sabers for the first time. It may not have the reputation or sense of humour of its successor, aside from the weapon itself you'll barely need to suspend disbelief, but it's heads and shoulders above most other HK films being produced at the time. In fact it's probably the reality-factor that I liked so much and I swear it reminded me of a Shakespearean plot way more than it should have. Add that up with great early effects, terrific editing, and the coolest gadget to behead a censor or two at 100 yards and you've got yourself a winner.

This film is no high art but, if you would like to be entertained with good cheesy kung fu action, this movie could be for you. So outrageous it was one of the most memorable films I watched as a child. I don't want to give away too much. A flying guillotine, is a sort of hat box attached to a rope. Thrown like a Frisbee, it settles on a person's head then, with a quick tug it swiftly slices it off. The device is then yanked back like a returning yo-yo as the headless corpse drops to the ground. A Shaw Brothers classic.