Fatal Flying Guillotine - Visual Vengeance

Thanks to Visual Vengeance, my martial arts movie education continues with Fatal Flying Guillotine (available for pre-order now). Apparently, the use of this weapon in martial arts films was a “craze” in the 1970s, but this is the first cinematic encounter for me, and I had a lot of fun with this one, even if I had no idea what was going on.

Due to bad translating or editing or both, I couldn’t figure out the particulars of the plot. It was clear that the old dude with the titular guillotines was the bad guy, and he had abandoned his family years ago because he needed to go to a magical valley to heal his heart from exercising too much (I swear that’s what the subtitles said). There’s also a book of medicine (and a forgery), and there’s a prince. I don’t know.

What I do know is that every couple minutes there are huge fights with great choreography and the sound effects I’ve come to expect from such a film. More importantly, Nearly everyone who dies in this film does so without their head, which means the title pays off.

As for the guillotines themselves, at first I found them to look silly as shit. They’re like big bells with a bunch of blades all over and inside them. Don’t get me wrong, I would be killed instantly by someone wielding these wacky things, but I would probably giggle right before it happened. The physics of the weapons are gravity-defying, but I dug the horror element of it. They seem to kind of operate on their own, chasing down dudes to decapitate. 

Beyond that, this was simply a fun curiosity for me. 

Transfer and Special Features

Aside from a few janky shots, this looks great, especially for what it is. And if you dig the jank, there’s a “dirty VHS” version of the film that lives up to its name. I only checked out a little bit of that one, but it’s also seven minutes longer, so true fans will get even more from that cut.

There’s a commentary with a podcaster if you’re into that sort of thing, but all I needed was the featurette with the aforementioned podcaster about the history of the flying guillotine in film. So I’m sure the commentary is filled with encyclopedic knowledge of the genre.

There’s also a visual essay, an archival interview with one of the actors, and a martial arts demonstration. 

It has Chinese and English-dubbed audio. 

The packaging is a big selling point, as the new art for the slipcover is awesome, and there’s a reversible cover for the case featuring the original artwork. 

Also included are some art cards, the usual Visual Vengeance VHS-style stickers, a mini-poster, and a booklet with essays. 

In other words, all the great stuff you’ve come to expect from Visual Vengeance. They love these old films, and it shows.