{"id":25193,"date":"2022-08-16T01:15:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T08:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=25193"},"modified":"2022-08-16T01:15:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T08:15:02","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-flying-guillotine-2-1978-aka-palace-carnage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=25193","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: FLYING GUILLOTINE 2 (1978) aka PALACE CARNAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Special Edition Blu-ray from 88 Films is currently available for purchase.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Shaw Brothers are a family of Hong Kong-based producers who released hundreds of films during the previous century, including famous martial arts and genre movies like The One-Armed Swordsman<\/em> (1967), Five Deadly Venoms<\/em> (1978) and The Flying Guillotine<\/em> (1975). They had numerous hits which naturally resulted in many sequels. Flying Guillotine 2<\/em> (1978) aka Palace Carnage<\/em> is something of an oddity in this department. While many sequels fail to live up to the original, many consider this effort just as good as (or perhaps even superior to) the original film\u2026 not to mention that it is one of the craziest movies ever you\u2019re ever likely to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

88 Films has just released a new Blu-ray of the title with a\nspectacular transfer. Typically, with a movie this old one expects to see a\ngrimy and somewhat damaged print. This edition looks meticulously cleaned up.\nThe film is sharp and arrives with new English subtitles and a few great extras\nto boot. It\u2019s a wonderful-looking disc presenting one of the wildest titles to\never come out of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than the title instrument of death, the story has\npractically nothing to do with the first movie in the series. The period story\nis set during the reign of sinister Emperor Yung Cheng (Feng Ku) who tortures\nand torments not only his subjects, but those who serve him. A band of rebels\nset out to assassinate the villain, but find it to be an extraordinarily\ndifficult feat. This is because Emperor Cheng has supplied some of his soldiers\nwith Flying Guillotines, deadly weapons that can be thrown from 100 paces and\ntake off the heads of enemies. Notable members of the underground resistance\ninclude the daughter of Cheng\u2019s Miliary Cabinet Na Lan (Szu Shih) and Ma Teng\n(Lung Ti) a man capable of designing instruments that can foil the Flying\nGuillotine apparatus. Teng is a reluctant hero who doesn\u2019t want to endanger his\nfamily, but that soon changes when his loved ones are brutally targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie is very fast-paced and relentlessly brutal. The\nantagonist is nasty in just about every way imaginable, tormenting everyone he\ncomes across and often leaving headless bodies in the process. Truth be told,\nhorrible things happen to most of the heroic characters in the story, which\nwould be even more disturbing were it not for the fact that everything is\npresented in a consistently over-the-top manner. Dozens of heads roll left\nright and center (I regret not tallying the exact number of decapitations) and\nthe action bits only cease in order to set up the next elaborate battle scene.\nThey\u2019re all incredibly well staged and get more and more elaborate as the story\nprogresses. It all leads to a suicide mission in which surviving members of the\nteam raid the emperor\u2019s palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Throughout this process, we experience many rough moments.\nThere\u2019s a memorable attempted poisoning that goes sideways. Additionally, there\nis a tense, high-energy battle in which one of the leads careens down the side\nof an escarpment under a moving carriage, bursting through the roof and flying\nthrough the air as he squares off against the baddies. As mentioned, the climax\nis particularly brutal as Teng and the others must contend with a new Flying\nGuillotine design and take on the surprisingly well-trained and menacing\nEmperor Cheng (who also tends to laugh maniacally while wiping victims out).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While strikingly graphic and tonally darker than\nanticipated, the zippy fight scenes do make a lasting impression and the movie\nitself ends up being both fast-paced and memorable. And although the characters\nhave no connection with those in the original film, this still manages to be\none of the better sequels out there and certainly one of the stronger Shaw\nBrothers titles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Blu-ray itself doesn\u2019t disappoint either. Everything\nlooks clearer than ever, including the period costumes, sets and prop weapons.\nI didn\u2019t notice a single scratch or issue with the print and was blown away by\nthe picture quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also plenty of great bonuses included on the disc.\nThe first is an informative booklet with information about the production that\nalso draws connections between Hong Kong martial arts cinema and the recent\ntrend of Marvel and DC films. While Flying Guillotine 2<\/em> gives the leads\na tougher mission and grimmer fates than heroes in PG-13 rated superhero movies,\nall of these tales do have a similar, mythic quality to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An informative commentary track featuring Hong Kong movie\nauthorities Mike Leeder and Arne Venema offers some interesting background\ndetails about the cast members and other factoids. The best bits include them\ngiving a bit of background into the production difficulties experienced on the\nfeature. It seems that the movie went through at least three directors who quit\nduring production. This info makes it all the more remarkable that the finished\nproduct is as strong as it is. Who knows, maybe each individual had their own\ncreative uses for the weapons which helped create more variety and energy to\nthe fights?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They also discuss the reluctances of the Shaw Brothers to\ncontinue promoting these movies and the troubles they\u2019ve had in interviewing\nHong Kong stars from this era. Their comments also help explain why the\nstudio\u2019s output is hard to come by. Additionally, the two mention plenty of\nother titles in the same vein that viewers may enjoy. Overall, it\u2019s a fun\nlisten. A banged-up Hong Kong trailer is also featured, as well as some very\nhigh-quality, sharp production stills.  The item also features some great\nnew art that tops the original poster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reviewer had a fantastic time with Flying Guillotine\n2<\/em>. As an action movie, it\u2019s a blast to watch. And it even manages to\ndeliver some drama and effectively deliver darker moments involving the\ncharacter backstories, not to mention the titular implements of death. If you\nenjoy action movies, Hong Kong cinema or Shaw Brothers productions, this\nBlu-ray is a must own. Pick it up as soon as you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Special Edition Blu-ray from 88 Films is currently available for purchase. The Shaw Brothers are a family of Hong Kong-based producers who released hundreds of films during the previous century, including famous martial arts and genre movies like The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), Five Deadly Venoms (1978) and The Flying Guillotine (1975). They had numerous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":25202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[697,2923,2928,7694,7695,7696,9288,13303,15655,15922,18194],"class_list":["post-25193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-action","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-flying-guillotine-2","tag-flying-guillotine-2-review","tag-flying-guillotine-part-2","tag-hong-kong","tag-martial-arts","tag-palace-carnage","tag-period","tag-shaw-brothers"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}