The Fatal Flying Guillotine Blu-ray Review

Visual Vengeance

Blu-ray Release: September 1, 2026

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color

Audio: English and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 87:57

Director: Raymond Lui

Note: The intro paragraphs of this review are recycled from my review of Flying Guillotine Part II (1978)

Deep in the forbidding Valley of No Return, a reclusive master, driven to madness by his own obsessive training, perfects a nightmarish weapon known as the 'Lightning Strike' – a savage evolution of the flying guillotine with twin whirling blades designed for maximum carnage. Any intruder who dares cross into his domain faces instant decapitation with ruthless precision. But, when a vengeance-driven fighter (Carter Wong) sets his sights on the valley, seeking justice for his mother's death, he must confront both the master's deadly invention and the head-chopping chaos it leaves in its wake. (From Visual Vengeance’s official synopsis)

In the annals of legendary martial arts weapons, no sword, spear, staff, or axe can compare to the violent esoteric mechanics of the fabled “flying guillotine.” Supposedly invented during the Qing Dynasty (221 to 206 BC), the flying guillotine was a folding cage attached to a chain that was designed to be thrown onto the head of an enemy. Following a successful lassoing, the chain would be pulled, activating buzzsaw blades around the base, severing the victim’s head, and capturing it within the cage for easy retrieval.

While most likely not an actual battlefield weapon (in season nine, episode 13, the Mythbusters verified that a thrown, caged, head-severing machine was historically possible, but that it would be too cumbersome to work in a melee situation), the flying guillotine is the type of fantastical armament that some industrious weapon designer probably tried to make and not exclusively the figment of a screenwriter’s imagination. That said, the cinematic potential of the flying guillotine is undeniable, leading to an increasingly outrageous series of films beginning with Ho Meng-Hua’s The Flying Guillotine (1975) made under Shaw Bros.

Thanks to purposefully confounding titles meant to trick audiences into watching unrelated products, it can be hard to differentiate the flying guillotine-themed films that followed. Ex-Shaw superstar Jimmy Wang Yu made a sequel to his Golden Harvest hit One-Armed Boxer (1971), titled One-Armed Boxer II in some territories, but is better-known as Master of the Fatal Flying Guillotine in 1976 and advertised as a sequel to Ho’s original. One year later, Raymond Lui and Taiwanese company Success Films made an unofficial prequel/rip-off of Wang’s film, entitled The Fatal Flying Guillotine (1977).

Fatal Flying Guillotine is, by all accounts, the bottom of the barrel for the subgenre and treated as a footnote by many martial arts enthusiasts. It’s certainly rougher around the edges than most Shaw Bros. or Golden Harvest productions from the era. The derivative plot kind of seems like two unrelated scripts crammed together and the pacing is off, but no one is putting in a half-hearted effort. Between iffy dramatic scenes, the film delivers a plethora of bloody, acrobatic fights, choreographed and performed by Chan Siu-Pang, Brandy Yuen, and Seven Little Fortunes Yuen Biao and Corey Yuen. The lush Taiwanese locations add additional production value, where chintzy costumes and props fail.

Raymond Lui was primarily a performer and appeared in more than twenty films, including Huang Feng’s The Angry River (1971) and Kwan Shen’s Blood Fingers (1972). He was most prolific as a triple-threat producer/director/actor during the late ‘70s and was known for working on quick turnarounds and small budgets. His films are the kind that found their way onto grey market, budget VHS and DVD compilations. Fatal Flying Guillotine and Shaolin Deadly Hands (aka: Shaolin Invincible Guys, 1978) are probably the two easiest to find titles in his little oeuvre. 

Fatal Flying Guillotine’s cult reputation is tied to the fad and the shamelessness of its advertising, as well as that of star Carter Wong. Wong (Carter Huang Chia-ta) is a genuine martial artist, was an official martial arts instructor for the Royal Hong Kong Police and contract player at Golden Harvest. He appeared alongside Anita Mao and Sammo Hung in Huang Feng’s Hapkido (aka: Lady Kung Fu, 1972) and When Taekwondo Strikes (1973), worked with Yuen Woo-ping on Joseph Kuo Nam Hung’s Born Invincible (1978), and had a short-lived Hollywood career playing Thunder in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China (1985) and acting as fight instructor on Peter MacDonald’s Rambo III (1988).

Shaw Bros. didn’t produce their own official follow-up to Flying Guillotine until 1978, when they released Hua Sha & Cheng Kang’s Flying Guillotine 2, aka: Palace Carnage. A third Shaw Flying Guillotine movie was released the same year entitled Vengeful Beauty, again directed by Ho Meng-Hua, after which the fad apparently burned itself out. It was briefly revived in the ‘90s (Johnnie To’s Heroic Trio [1993]) and 2010s (Andrew Lau’s The Guillotines [2012]).

Video

As I already mentioned, Fatal Flying Guillotine was designed to trick audiences into paying to see it and ended up on budget and grey market VHS and DVD (World Video, SYS International, Videoasia’s various Wu Tang collections). It was also often censored on European video. Fans could also catch iffy streaming versions on Amazon Prime and YouTube. The film debuted on limited edition German Blu-ray via T.V.P. in 2016. This North American HD premiere, which I’m pretty sure is the same as the German disc, based on the German titling, matches the expectations set by other recent martial arts titles from Visual Vengeance. The 1080p, 2.35:1 transfer is reportedly taken from a new 2K scan of original film elements (I assume a print source). Note that there are a short series of gore shots (mostly relegated to the climax) that seem to have been spliced from a standard definition source.

Details and textures are a bit soft, similar to the older Celestial Shaw scans, but the bigger issue here is the washed out colors. This is another common issue, though companies like Arrow and 88 Films tend to try and cover it up with grading. Those ‘original film elements’ simply aren’t in very good shape. With the limitations in mind, this gritty, pale, and discolored transfer still works, as long as you’re imagining yourself seated at a genuine grindhouse screening of a worn 35mm print. 

Audio

Fatal Flying Guillotine is presented with Mandarin and English mono dubs (the menu mislabels them as stereo tracks) and both are, unfortunately, in lossy Dolby Digital, as tends to happen with Visual Vengeance Blu-rays. The English track is preferred in this case, both for the chop-socky exploitation appeal and the more consistent sound quality. The subtitles are, in fact, dubtitles, but they aren’t full of dubious on-screen sound effects descriptions, as seen on VV’s Nine Demons (1984) disc. Though Frankie Chan is credited as composer, I doubt he can be credited with the entire score, especially since I heard a number of cues from the famed De Wolfe library.

Extras

• Commentary with Justin Decloux – The Important Cinema Club Podcast co-host warns us that this is not a scene-specific-style track, before digging deeply into the wider careers of the cast & crew.

• A Brief History of Flying Guillotine Movies (8:20, HD) – Decloux returns for a look at the weapon itself and the many movies that feature it, including film and trailer clips (his research is a lot more complete and inclusive than my own).

• Chan Siu-Pang was There (9:36, HD) – More with Decloux, who discusses the actor and choreographer’s 4+ decade career.

• Archival interview with Carter Wong (20:49, SD) – The star chats (in English) about his training, martial arts, and making movies.

• Chan Siu-Pang: 10 Styles of Tamo (5:52) – Archival video footage of the performer/choreographer demonstrating specific martial arts in a public park.

• Fatal Flying Guillotine: Old School ‘Dirty VHS’ Version (87:57, SD) – A straight-up rip of a delightfully rotten tape version of the film.

• Image gallery 

• Visual Vengeance trailer reel

The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.