The Flying Guillotine

As far as the Kung Fu goes, there are dozens of contemporary or newer movies that do it much better, but this one does have a pretty neat whatsit, gimmicky though it may be.

okay movie

Great beginning, sagging middle, wonderful finale.

This doesn't quite reach its potential. Flying guillotine itself is cool, used often and to great effect. Surprisingly, the film takes the long road and follows its inception, and a team of assassins trained to use it to take out emperor's opponents. Finally it focuses on Kuan Tai Chen's character who starts to question their orders. I think that it would have worked better with more focus on horror elements, as now the flying guillotine scenes outshine the traditional kung fu fight scenes.

It's a Shaw Brothers featuring a cool made up deadly weapon, so by default it has some enjoyable action. But it also has some serious pacing problems, making me yawn too many times. And while the weapon might look cool in a movie it clearly wouldn't be that useful in real life.

Feels a tad long yet still a fun martial arts flick.