Tsui Hark spent forty years detonating whatever genre he was handed — Zu turned the wuxia film into an effects laboratory in 1983, Don't Play with Fire is the 1980 nihilist provocation that got him branded a menace and now returns newly restored, and Time and Tide is the late-career action film where his camera stops obeying physics altogether. Knock Off, his Van Damme picture, is the deranged Hollywood detour that makes more sense inside a retrospective than outside one. Two of the weekend's fo
What to expect
Repertory screenings in Metrograph's two Lower East Side houses, mixing DCP and 35mm prints across the series. The late Saturday slot for Don't Play with Fire is a genuine midnight-adjacent show; the Sunday afternoon pair is the easier double bill.
Good to know
- The series runs longer than this weekend, so the four titles here are a slice of an eleven-film survey.
- Knock Off and Time and Tide screen on 35mm prints — the reason to see them in a theater.
- Metrograph is at 7 Ludlow Street; the F to East Broadway and the B/D to Grand St are closest.
- Don't Play with Fire has a very late start time, so plan your ride home before you book.
- Metrograph members get priority booking, which matters for restorations and 35mm shows.
- The upstairs commissary and bar make the Sunday double bill an easy full afternoon.
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Common questions
How long does the retrospective run?
The series is an eleven-film survey running September 4 through October 18, so the four titles screening this weekend are one slice of a much longer run.
Are there Tsui Hark screenings on Friday?
Not in this series — the weekend's Tsui Hark titles fall on Saturday and Sunday. The series itself began earlier in September and continues past this weekend.
Which films are on film prints?
Knock Off and Time and Tide both screen on 35mm. Zu and Don't Play with Fire screen on DCP, the latter in a new restoration.
