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When a blind assassin with a flying guillotine faces off against a one-armed boxer, there’s no doubt who’ll win: everyone who loves a great kung fu movie. Once you’ve seen Master of the Flying Guillotine, one of the greatest — and most influential — kung-fu flicks ever made, you, too, can consider yourself a winner. Alongside the aforementioned assassin and boxer, the film also features such surreal oddities as a fighter with ten-foot-long arms and such kung-fu staples as a massive tournament full of colorful combatants — making this a perfect introduction to the genre.
“It’s often cited as one of [Quentin] Tarantino’s favorite films of all time,” says Pablo Kjolseth, executive director of the University of Colorado’s International Film Series. “He cribbed a couple things from it for Kill Bill.” The film kicks off a monthlong series of kung-fu classics at IFS, curated by kung-fu enthusiast and film programmer Dan Halsted of Portland’s Hollywood Theater using rare 35mm prints from his private collection. “If you’re only going to see a handful of kung-fu titles, make these the ones to watch,” Kjolseth advises.
See Master of the Flying Guillotine tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the VAC Basement Auditorium (1B20) on the CU-Boulder campus. Tickets are $7, $6 for seniors and CU students. For information and tickets, visit internationalfilmseries.com.
Thu., Feb. 6, 2014
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