The Flying Guillotine

Director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among Western kung-fu film fans with The Flying Guillotine. One of Shaw's biggest martial arts stars, Chen Kuan-tai, plays the leader of a group of killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor to use a deadly, beheading weapon to assassination dissidents. Although based on a true story, the film's weapon was a complete fabrication because in real life, no one ever survived to tell what the actual weapon really looked like.