Hard Boiled
“Chow Yun-fat is Tequila, a renegade cop in the Dirty Harry mold, itching to get revenge after his partner is killed in a shootout. Meanwhile, his police chief has placed an undercover agent (Tony Leung) inside the organization of Tequila’s hated enemy, a triad boss in the arms-smuggling business. Tension heats up as Tequila moves in on his target, and he and Leung team up for a high-body-count showdown at a local hospital. John Woo has a small role as a sage bartender.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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City on Fire
Ko Chow is about to resign from the police force when he is asked to take on one more case. He is to go undercover in a gang that is robbing jewellery stores. He accepts the task and successfully infiltrates the gang. It is a very dangerous mission, not just because the gang might discover his true identity but because many of the police suspect he may well be a criminal.
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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Bullet in the Head
“John Woo’s most uncomfortably violent film concerns three buddies on the lam who end up in war-torn Vietnam, where they meet a variety of violent circumstances that test their moral character and the bonds of brotherhood. An epic movie that has been compared, not inaptly, to The Deer Hunter, particularly for its harrowing scenes in a Vietcong internment camp.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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A Chinese Ghost Story III
“Joey Wong returns as another ghost-woman whose soul is held captive by an evil tree demon. Tony Leung is the young monk who comes to her rescue. Heavy on special effects, including Leung’s transformation into a flying golden Buddha.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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A Chinese Ghost Story II
In this installment of a phenomenal saga of the supernatural, four young people are caught in a tug-o-war of evil between an Imperial Wizard and a corrupt General. Outrageous special effects galore!
“Leslie Cheung meets up with a human lookalike of his former ghostly love, and is enlisted to help a group of swordsmen rescue her father from corrupt government officials. Along the way, they meet up with a mysterious monk, who is actually a giant centipede monster, intent on eating every human it comes across.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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A Chinese Ghost Story
“Ground-breaking fantasy based on the ghost stories of the popular Ming Dynasty writer Pu Song-ling. Leslie Cheung plays a naive young tax collector who takes shelter in a haunted temple and falls in love with a beautiful ghost (Joey Wong), herself the captive of a thousand-year-old tree demon with a life-sapping tongue. Coming to the couple’s aid is a Taoist monk who battles the evil spirits with sword and scripture.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
“The quintessential merger of the traditional Chinese ghost story with the Hong Kong pop sensibility.” – Barbara Scharres
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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The Killer
“The most famous of all Cantonese-language movies concerns a hired assassin (Chow Yun-fat) who accidentally blinds a nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) during what was to have been his final job. Danny Lee plays the disgruntled cop who tries to track down the killer through the singer, whom Chow has befriended in order to right his wrong. When a power-crazed former client tries to kill Chow in order to silence him, the hit man and the cop find themselves on the same side.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
“The best Scorsese/Melville homage ever made.” – Tony Rayns
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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Peking Opera Blues
“An undisputed classic, PEKING OPERA BLUES tells the story of three strong-willed women in China’s capital city amid the political chaos following the revolution of 1911. The action moves back and forth between palace and theater at a furious pace, and director Tsui Hark has been praised for his ability to combine farce, pageantry, drama and stuntwork.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
“Hong Kong cinema is too wide-ranging for there to be a ‘best’ picture… but if you put a gun to my back, Tsui Hark’s masterpiece would be my choice.” – Andy Klein
“A soaring, romantic action-comedy, with loads of eye-popping color, French-farce-flavored set pieces, and high-octane cinematic imagination.” – Ric Meyers
“Still unsurpassed. Tsui Hark recapitulates nearly the whole history of cinema–from slapstick farce to tragic heroism–in one gleeful, manic burst of inspiration.” – Howard Hampton
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon
“Tsui Hark took over the reins completely for the final installment of the series, which was shot on location in Saigon, and which, in its feminism, departs radically from Woo’s approach to storytelling. In this prequel to Part I, set in 1974, a young Mark Gor tries to help his father and best friend escape from Vietnam. Mark, not yet the tough guy, meets up with femme fatale Anita Mui, who teaches him how to shoot a gun, among other things. The movie’s sense of desperatation was undoubtedly heightened by the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which occured just before the start of production.” – Fredric Dannen, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East
“In the end, it all comes down to Anita Mui, who gives a wondrously iconic performance that’s Bogart and Jeanne Moreau rolled into a single trenchcoated figure.” – Howard Hampton
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
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A Better Tomorrow II
In this sequel, Ho initially refuses to go undercover to bust the gang he used to work for in exchange for his release from prison. He only accepts after his little brother, the policeman Kit accepts the assignment. Meanwhile in New York Ken Gor, the twin brother of Mark Gor from A Better Tomorrow, shelters the boss of the gang, who has had to flee after it is taken over by a more aggressive leadership.
Screening as part of our Hong Kong Cinema Classics series
See more and save! Get a Hong Kong Cinema Classics 3-Ticket Pack ($30 for IFC Center members and $45 for non-members). Ticket packs are good for any 3 shows in the retrospective.