Saw Master of the Flying Guillotine (thanks, J!) It was solid gold schlock. It's a kung-fu film about an evil blind monk who is trying to kill a one-armed boxer who is our hero because he's our hero. The blind monk is armed with a razor-blade-veiled hat which beheads people (it is the titular Flying Guillotine.) To deepen the confusion, there is a fighting tournament going on with non-knife-using fighters, and villainous foreigners from Thailand (kickboxing expert) and India (expert in yoga and also in making his arms stretch really long.) Filmed in the 70s, the film is shot in some grainy, muddy-colored film stock that looks like it's been found in a mud puddle. the soundtrack is full of incongruous heavy guitars and synth music, with the wicked foreigners having their own, ethnically inspired, themes. This, ladies and gentlemen, this is schock, this is camp, this is grindhouse.
This film also inspired Tarantino who, say what else you will about him, is a magpie of great taste. The film is a genuine so-bad-it's-good film. In fact, it's not even that bad, so much as delightfully bewildering. Take, for example, the barely-explicable swastika the blind monk wears. Consider also the impractical and ridiculous braided-hair-style fighting on display at one point. Moments of marvelous confusion and outrageous bad-assery are everywhere in this film. At one point some dude is walking barefoot on the points of swords. Swords, man. At one point the hero walks on the ceiling and it's never mentioned again. Amazing, amazing schlock.
This is a party film. Amazing, stupid, hilarious, delightful. My friends can look forward to being subjected to this film in the future!
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