Nostalgia Kinky

Visual Vengeance once again steps away from its usual heroic SOV releases for a dive into celluloid with its exciting new edition of Fatal Flying Guillotine (1977). This infectious and campy Taiwanese production has been treated with great care by Visual Vengeance, and the release comes armed with the company’s usual expansive extras. Recommended and available to order from MVD.

A few times during his very energetic commentary track, film historian Justin Decloux mentions that Fatal Flying Guillotine contains a lot of fighting. And a lot means a lot in the case of this frenetic little film. Barely a few minutes slip by in this 80-minute romp without a lengthy and highly choreographed martial-arts-based fight breaking out. In just his second film as director, Raymond Lui delivers a film overflowing with the one thing he knew everyone in his audience loves.

Fatal Flying Guillotine features a script from its director. It has to do with captured lightning, the loss of a mother, and something to do with…
Oh, who really cares?
Lui certainly didn’t, or he doesn’t seem to
Fatal Flying Guillotine is a film exclusively about kicking, punching, and flying heads. Lui’s awareness of it is refreshing, and he fills about 90% of his film with these three key things.

While not exactly an ‘acting’ showcase, Fatal Flying Guillotine is blessed with a good ensemble, most memorably featuring Chan Siu-Pang, who is highlighted throughout Visual Vengeance’s extras. The film’s random dialogue scenes are its most forgettable aspect, and honestly they just feel like seat-holders for the frenetic fight scenes.

Fatal Flying Guillotine isn’t an especially memorable work, but it sure is a lot of fun to watch. Lui delivers a very meat-and-potatoes sort of film here that is as in-your-face about its intentions as possible. Anyone going into a film called Fatal Flying Guillotine hoping for a strong story with compelling characters might deserve disappointing. Raymond Lui delivers the exact film he set out to make.

Visual Vengeance continues its incredible run of wonderfully curated and imaginative releases. This slipcovered edition has tons of goodies, from booklets to sticker sheets and a poster. On the disc, we get a great-looking new 2K transfer from original film elements supervised and composited by film archivist Toby Russell.
Visual Vengeance offers up a variety of extras, including Justin Decloux essays, plus a commentary. Some additional archival footage is also on hand, along with a VHS scan of the entire film.
This is another great release from Visual Vengeance and is recommended.

-Jeremy Richey, September 2026-