The Flying Guillotine is a 1975 Martial Arts Movie produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by Ho Meng-hwa.
During the Qing Dynasty, a servant of the brutal Yongzheng Emperor devises a deadly weapon: the titular Flying Guillotine, which can quickly decapitate a man at a long distance. The Emperor orders the creation of a unit of skilled assassins to master the weapon and bring his swift and unseen "justice" to those he deems deserving. When one of the squad starts questioning the disloyalty of his targets, he and his wife soon end up on the receiving end of his own weapon. The causes another assassin, Ma Teng (Chen Kuan-tai), to go on the run, where he is soon hunted by his former comrades.
The film, and especially it's weapon, proved massively popular, but a sequel ended up in Development Hell, allowing a few imitators to pop one, chief among them 1976's Master of the Flying Guillotine.
In 1978, the Shaw Brothers finally made their true sequel, The Flying Guillotine 2: Palace Carnage. Ma Teng (Ti Lung) returns as part of an open rebellion against the Yongzheng Emperor, having developed a weapon that can defeat the Flying Guillotine. Meanwhile, intrigue abounds in the palace as others make their own plots, and a new Double Guillotine is developed.
A third film released in the same year, Vengeful Beauty, directed by Ho Meng-hwa, director of the first Flying Guillotine film. In it a woman goes after the Emperor's Guillotine squad after they take her husband's head.
Ho Meng-hua also directed a similar film, titled The Dragon Missile, which is about yet another Imperial assassin who uses a guillotine-like weapon to kill his targets.
See also The Guillotines, a 2012 film loosely based on the series.
These movies contains examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: Na Lan and her Lady Guillotine Squad.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The sequel ends with a massive battle between Yongzheng's forces and the La Résistance, in the throne room, which is soon joined by Ma Teng reinforcing the good guys.
- Bittersweet Ending: At the end of Flying Guillotine, Ma Teng escapes with with wife and child, but to do so, he had to kill the rest of the Guillotine Squad, many of whom were his friends.
- Bolivian Army Ending: In Flying Guillotine 2, Ma Teng succeeds in killing the Emperor, but all the rebels are dead, and the final shot is of him leaping back, guillotine(and emperor's head) in hand, as several spears are being thrust at him.
- Call to Agriculture: After betraying the Guillotine Squad, Ma Teng then retreats to the peaceful countryside with his wife and son, deciding to start life anew as a farmer. Unfortunately it doesn't last...
- Elite Mooks: The Guillotine squad are Emperor Yongzheng's best fighters deadlier than his regular soldiers.
- Epic Flail: The titular Guillotine can be used as a flying buzzsaw as well as a decapitation device.
- Happy Ending Override: The first movie ends with Ma Teng ultimately killing the last member of the elite Guillotines sent after him, and escaping with his new family to another town. Roll credits for a happy ending!... until the sequel when a new legion of Guillotine assassins after Ma Teng ends up killing his wife and son.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Yongzeng Emperor is decapitated by his own flying guillotine.
- It's Personal: In the sequel, Ma Teng's vendetta against the Emperor's Guillotine squad becomes more direct when assassins from the squad after him ends up killing his wife and young son.
- La Résistance: In the sequel, Ma Teng joins a team of resistance fighters who opposes the Emperor. The climatic battle has the fighters taking on the Emperor's army as Ma duels the Emperor himself.
- Mook–Face Turn: Ma Teng originally used to be a member of the Guillotines, but have since defected after realizing the numerous atrocities they're assigned to commit. Naturally, this ends up having him being hunted down by those who used to be his allies.
- Off with His Head!: In a series called "Flying Guillotine", a lot of people naturally lose their heads to the device.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: By Flying Guillotine 2, the Emperor has learned to use the flying guillotine himself. In the final battle, he takes on three rebels simultaneously with sword, guillotine, and his bare hands if necessary.
- We Used to Be Friends: Ma Teng's main enemy in the first movie is Kun, his former friend and fellow Guillotine assassin member, who turns out to be a Blood Knight who enjoys killing. When Ma Teng defects, inevitably he ends up facing Kun in a final fight to the death.
- You Killed My Father: Na Lan wants to kill the Emperor because his orders led to her mother killing herself, and doubly so after he makes her kill her own father. Ma Teng launches his final attack after an attempt to apprehend him leads to the deaths of his wife and son.
