Chow Yun-Fat (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) steps into the most gleefully tasteless shoot-em-up of his storied career. Queer arms dealers, fields of exploding automobiles, harsh neon greens and blues, madness with butterfly knives, biker punk chic, ripping donuts on motorbikes and heaping helpings of horniess. The ultimate ‘90s Hong Kong action sleazefest by bullet balletmaster Ringo Lam (CITY ON FIRE, PRISON ON FIRE).

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“With Full Contact, Lam takes the action genre and proceeds to not merely transcend it but explode it.” Beth Accomando, KPBS.org

“Fast, fierce and gleefully tasteless…” Dennis Harvey, Variety

Long difficult to find, Tsui Hark’s DON’T PLAY WITH FIRE (aka DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND) is one of the most controversial and violent crime films from the Hong Kong New Wave of the 1980s. Now newly restored!

After a fatal hit-and-run, three high school friends flee the crime scene. They are witnessed by Pearl, a sadistic young girl who pursues the group and blackmails them into more crimes, with increasingly disastrous consequences.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

Critic’s Pick! “Even today, the intense mix of provocative bloodshed and potent politics, a punkish call for anarchic defiance under colonial rule, remains laudably vicious.” Robert Daniels, The New York Times

“No film captures [Tsui Hark’s] early renegade style better.” Stephanie Monohan, Screen Slate

“An unflinching, nihilistic examination of juvenile delinquency in an unstable political climate, [it] still holds up more than three decades on, both as a piece of entertainment and as a cautionary tale about the dangers of a disenfranchised young generation.” James Marsh, ScreenAnarchy

The beloved cult classic fantasy, recently restored!

A traveling tax collector (Leslie Cheung) short on funds opts to take shelter in a seemingly abandoned temple. He is surprised to discover a young woman (Joey Wang) there and instantly falls for her beauty and grace. While every romance has its challenges, the tax collector gets more than he bargained for when he learns that the maiden is, in fact, a ghost… forced into servitude by a demon. With the help of a brave warrior, the tax collector must brave the perils of a supernatural world in order to free his newfound love.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“…hard to top for stylistic boldness, vivid pictorialism, and dramatic power.” Ted Shen, Chicago Reader

“Blending every genre under the sun into a film that feels like a permanent sugar rush, this action horror classic was perfecting wire-fu long before Western audiences knew what it was.” Justin Bowyer, Empire

John Woo’s long-unavailable action masterpiece, newly restored!

Chow Yun-Fat stars as a cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers and goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring, he joins forces with an undercover agent (Tony Leung) who’s working as a gangster hitman. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, HARD BOILED continually startles with its originality and dark humor.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Encore screening added Tuesday, Feb 17th!

“Woo has elevated the action movie into the realm of art. Infinitely more exciting than a dozen Die Hards, action cinema doesn’t come any better than this.” Mark Salisbury, Empire Magazine

“It’s nirvana for seekers of action, and it rarely gets any better than this.” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

40th anniversary of John Woo’s landmark action classic, newly restored!

The film that established John Woo as the king of the Hong Kong gunplay film and made a superstar of Chow Yun-Fat! An ex-gangster tries to reconnect with his estranged policeman brother, but he finds that his ties to gangs are harder to break than he thought.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“The Citizen Kane of Hong Kong cinema.” Dave Kehr, The New York Times

John Woo’s jaw-dropping bullet ballet classic, newly restored!

When an expert assassin (Chow Yun-Fat) accidentally blinds a nightclub singer (Sally Yeh), he chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim’s sight-restoring operation. But when he’s double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman (Danny Lee) to make things right.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“It starts over the top then blasts through the roof. It takes your breath away!” J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“…The Killer is John Woo at his pinnacle.” Mark Dinning, Empire

Ringo Lam’s crime thriller classic, newly restored!

Chow Yun-Fat stars as a maverick undercover cop who infiltrates a gang of Hong Kong jewel thieves, but is wounded when the robbery turns into a massacre. Trapped in their hideout, the gang seek to unmask the traitor in their midst.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“The quintessential undercover-cop/heist movie… a film full of brutal realism, and a career-high performance from star Chow Yun-Fat.” Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

40th anniversary of Tsui Hark’s fast-paced action comedy!

In the aftermath of China’s first democratic revolution, three high-spirited young women from different backgrounds cross paths on a quest for liberation. Together, their intertwined lives weave an epic tale of love, sacrifice and patriotism, as they embark on a daring journey in the midst of political chaos. Elegantly blending action, comedy and social satire into a bright and colorful production, PEKING OPERA BLUES boasts Tsui Hark’s energetic filmmaking style at the height of his powers, and remains an acclaimed classic of Hong Kong cinema.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“Rarely has the ability of Hong Kong genre cinema to juggle wildly conflicting moods been more evident than in Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues. The film doesn’t so much alternate between as simultaneously embody a screwball comedy, political thriller, buddy action flick, and a melodramatic tribute to rapidly forged yet unbreakable emotional bonds. That it not only hangs together but flows cogently and provides a stellar showcase for each of its lead actresses marks the film as one of Tsui’s finest achievements.” Jake Cole, Slant Magazine

“It’s impossible not to be carried along by the delirious rush of silliness in this knockabout screwball comedy.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

John Woo’s Vietnam War-era saga of greed and betrayal, newly restored!

Three friends fleeing Hong Kong after a violent crime find themselves trapped in the chaos of the Vietnam War, where their loyalty and morality are tested beyond repair. What begins as a desperate bid for escape descends into a harrowing portrait of friendship under unimaginable pressure. As war strips away ideals and innocence, the bonds between the men fracture, leading to betrayals that cut deeper than any bullet.

Fueled by rage and grief Bullet in the Head trades balletic elegance for raw emotional devastation. This is heroic bloodshed turned inward, and a legendary filmmaker pushing himself into completely new territory.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“As operatic as he is in crafting his set pieces, John Woo proves he is equally adept at making a Shakespearean tragedy from characters of great depth. Bullet in the Head is a reminder that John Woo is considered a master because of his expertise and supreme style. At the same time, some of his great works, like this one, also possess great substance.” Aneesh Raikundalia, High on Films

Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967.

Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, THE BLADE follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Vincent Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger. With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, THE BLADE was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Special live intro from local Hong Kong genre film connoisseur and one of the programmers of the Seattle Film Society, Patrick McFarland.

“The action scenes are some of the most chaotic in Tsui’s canon, with an emphasis on rapid, almost cubist editing that seduces you with swings and strikes caught from multiple angles.” Jake Cole, Slant

“Watching [The Blade] is like sitting in the passenger seat of a feature-length, high-speed car chase sequence. It’s thrilling, it’s confusing, and you’ve never seen anything like it before. And you want to go again and again, like a rollercoaster ride through hell.” Peter Martin, ScreenAnarchy