All Mortal Kombat Fans Should Watch This Amazing Martial Arts Movie From 1976

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It’s surprising to discover that the core elements of the Mortal Kombat franchise actually appeared in Master of the Flying Guillotine, a martial arts film released 16 years before the first game and 19 years before the first Mortal Kombat movie. The popular video game series clearly draws heavily from the world of classic martial arts films, and that influence is evident when you play any of the Mortal Kombat games.

The classic martial arts films and the actors who starred in them greatly influenced the creation of Mortal Kombat. For example, characters in the game were inspired by legendary figures like Gordon Liu, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock, and Bruce Lee.

Classic kung fu films from Shaw Brothers, like Enter the Dragon, Bloodsport, and Big Trouble in Little China, heavily influenced the series. While all these movies share similarities with Mortal Kombat, a 1976 Taiwanese martial arts film is the closest in terms of its overall idea.

What Master Of The Flying Guillotine Is About

Released in 1976, Master of the Flying Guillotine continues the story from the 1972 film The One-Armed Boxer. That earlier movie followed a fighter (Jimmy Wang Yu) who lost an arm and sought revenge on the assassins who destroyed his martial arts school. This sequel reveals that the assassins he defeated had a powerful teacher (Kam Kong’s Fung Chu Wun Chi), and now he is seeking retribution.

The movie’s villain uses a dangerous weapon called the flying guillotine – a bladed basket on a chain that he controls like a rope. With it, he can easily chop off people’s heads. He reveals his plan at the beginning: to kill every one-armed man until the One-Armed Boxer is defeated.

Master of the Flying Guillotine combines a revenge story with an all-out martial arts tournament. The One-Armed Boxer shows up to watch the competition, and without realizing it, ends up facing off against Fung Chu Wun Chi. Their rivalry throws the tournament into chaos and leads to several intense fights.

Master Of The Flying Guillotine’s Similarities To Mortal Kombat Explained

The martial arts tournament in Master of the Flying Guillotine featured a wide range of fighting styles. Competitors included experts in yoga from India, various forms of kung fu, Muay Thai, Mongolian wrestling, and other disciplines.

While films like Bloodsport and Enter the Dragon also feature martial arts tournaments with fighters from around the globe, Master of the Flying Guillotine stands out by specifically focusing on combat with weapons.

While movies like Bloodsport and Enter the Dragon showcase various martial arts, their fight scenes generally focus on hand-to-hand combat. Master of the Flying Guillotine breaks from this tradition, allowing fighters to use any weapon they choose – even if it creates an uneven playing field.

Like the Mortal Kombat series, Master of the Flying Guillotine features fighters with a wide range of weapons, or even no weapons at all. During battles, you’ll see characters wielding tonfas with hidden blades, three-section staffs, rope darts, bo staffs, and swords. The infamous flying guillotine itself also makes an unexpected appearance, though it’s not controlled by a competitor.

The focus on weapon-based fighting in Master of the Flying Guillotine highlights a key element of the Mortal Kombat franchise: its extreme violence. While both Bloodsport and Enter the Dragon show opponents being killed, Master of the Flying Guillotine—a 1976 cult classic—takes it further, and the use of weapons is a major factor in achieving that level of brutality.

The film Master of the Flying Guillotine features incredibly violent fights. One contestant is beheaded, another blinded, and a third suffers a fatal wound to the head. In one particularly brutal duel, both fighters end up killing each other.

When it comes to spectacular finishing moves in martial arts films, Master of the Flying Guillotine really delivers—and that’s a hallmark of the Mortal Kombat series.

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2025-11-15 18:39