In the days of ancient China, the people are kept under control by the Manchu by the practitioners of the flying guillotine. The master of this bizarre device, which looks like a bowl lined with razor blades, is the blind monk Fung (Kang Kam). He is out to gain revenge on the one armed fighter Liu Te Lung (Yu Wang) who killed two of his disciples...
That is the plot, which isn't much. The film is mostly about the fighting and there is a lot of it in this film. In fact the film is nearly all fight scenes which are held together by the odd bit of plot. Those fight scenes, especially the final battle between Fung and Liu are on the whole pretty terrific.
