The Flying Guillotine

Legend has it that the flying guillotine was a weapon used by a band of assassins working for Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing dynasty. Allegedly capable of severing a person’s head from a mere hundred paces, it was further mystified in folklore, fuelling the vivid imagination of filmmakers who came up with a myriad of designs and capabilities for this lethal weapon. In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers created a version that resembles a metal helmet on a chain, with sharp blades lining inside the rim. Throw the guillotine over the enemy’s head and his crown will be severed, leaving behind a headless corpse in its wake.

In The Guillotines (2012), director Andrew Lau reimagined flying guillotine by utilising computer effects to render an ordinary-looking scimitar into a flying ring wrought with metal hooks, which, upon release, would strangle an opponent’s neck with fatal consequences. The actual prop comprises two separate weapons. Its astounding transformation is a triumph of CGI effects.