In the history of Hong Kong New Wave Cinema, Tsui Hark remains a sovereign figure, the forerunner of the first wave of political filmmakers who’d trained abroad during the 1970s. But following the box-office flop of his early, more experimental work, he shifted his style towards more commercial Kung Fu fare, a la John Woo. Some (this theater included) might have felt a teensy bit betrayed. This month, Spectacle Theater is proud to present a survey of Tsui Hark’s early new wave films, which culminates in a special presentation of his nihilistic 1980 avant-punk masterpiece, DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND.

Tsui Hark has directed, written, produced, and/or acted in more than 60 features, but his first three films showcased a young man raging against the mores of life in Hong Kong and the formal constraints put on its film establishment during the 1970s. The films are tightly controlled demolitions that hinge on chaotic set pieces that leave viewers breathless from their freedom from stylistic convention. He also bucked tradition in Hong Kong cinema by casting women in lead roles, and his subjects—urban decay, the 1967 Hong Kong riots,directionless anger of the youth,Hong Kong’s inability to defend itself from America’s cultural and economic domination—are just as pertinent to the world today as they were 40 years ago.

The series’ ace in the hole is DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND, a completely unique entry in the history of punk cinema. Kinetic and hyper violent, the film is a deeply cynical portrait of life in Hong Kong, with much of Hark’s signature anger and energy reserved for the audience itself. The film, which follows bomb-throwing disaffected youth as they attempt to smash Hong Kong’s sick culture, proved controversial enough to warrant censorship by the British colonial authorities, and Hark got burned out.

His first three films remain a fascinating document of a new talent emerging with a set of aesthetic and moral criteria intact, an angry voice fighting against the apathy of a sick society.

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DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND
Dir. Tsui Hark, 1980.
Hong Kong. 95 min.

TUESDAY, APRIL 3 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, APIRL 11 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, APRIL 15 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, APRIL 24 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 28 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

Content Warning: Animal Cruelty, Mice and Cats

“In article three of the 1956 law dealing with dangerous objects, explosives are classified as ‘dangerous objects of the first kind.’ People possessing such objects are called… DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND!’”

Perhaps the grimmest and most nihilistic portrait of Hong Kong society to emerge from the first HK New Wave movement, Tsui Hark’s socio-economic avant-punk action masterpiece is like no film you will ever see again. Banned by the British colonial government immediately upon its release and forced into a state-mandated re-edit, the film has become a cult classic, and an important entry in the history of “delinquent youth” cinema. Spectacle is proud to present this rebellious, corrosive film in its original form.

Close-up on a cage of mice on a desk in a gritty tenement: A radio blares the obscenities that pass for news in late-70s Hong Kong: violence, natural disasters, dead children. A hand reaches from the darkness to snatch a white mouse, and proceeds to bore a nail into its brain before returning it to the cage, where it is devoured by it’s brothers and sisters.

This is the opening sequence of Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind, Tsui Hark’s most stunning contribution to the lineage of nihilist cinema. The setting is bleak: Hong Kong is portrayed as a living apocalypse of corruption and violence. Disaffected teenagers throw bombs for sport, violence is everywhere, colonialist American interests poison the population, and every citizen is trapped in a money-driven society hurtling itself towards auto-annihilation. The story follows a tight-knit cell of teenagers as they attempt to wreak havoc on a sick society—if they can avoid offing each other for long enough to do it.

Hark’s inventive camerawork ranges from shaky and handheld in some of the more fiery action sequences to fluid, elegant, and kinetic tracking shots through Hong Kong’s urban wasteland. Set to unauthorized usage of Goblin’s DAWN OF THE DEAD soundtrack, and capped by a gripping performance from Lin Chung-chi as a icily sociopathic teenage girl, this ultra-violent new wave masterpiece is anger and ugliness made manifest on the screen, and, according to film critic Law Kar, “probably the most nihilistic film ever made… one of those very rare films in the history of Hong Kong cinema that brims with accusations and subversion, and whose use of violence has a special significance.”

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WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU
Dir. Tsui Hark, 1980.
Hong Kong. 90 min.

MONDAY, APRIL 2 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 19 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 13 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

“It didn’t turn out good.” – Tsui Hark on WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU

A grim fantasy about Mainland China, Hark’s second directorial effort took the form of a sort of Hong Kong New Wave version of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. While on the surface, the film is much simpler than Hark’s densely plotted debut, it dips into multiple genres while working as a steely anti-communist allegory that probes the relationship between Hong Kong and China.

The films follows Secret Agent 999 of the “Central Surveillance Agency,” as he pursues a mysterious thief named “Rolex.” The hunt leads him into a cannibalistic village, where residents subsist on visitors they capture and cook. The film is part horror, part Kung Fu, and part slapstick comedy, and Tsui’s most overtly anti-communist film (although it treats religion, intellectuals, and bourgeois romanticism with equal satirical acridity).

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THE BUTTERFLY MURDERS
Dir. Tsui Hark, 1979.
Hong Kong. 88 min.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 14 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 28 – MIDNIGHT

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

Hark’s directorial debut came in the form of this Wuxia, or martial arts epic, deeply inspired by Euro-American horror films and Spaghetti Westerns from the 1970s, a traditional swordplay adventure restructured as a murder mystery and inflected with bio-horror elements pulled from THE BIRDS.

On the strength of Hark’s success in the HK television industry, he was hired to direct his first feature in 1979, and immediately imprinted his signature style onto the screen. The story tells the legend of the noble Shum family, who was beset by clouds of murderous butterflies. Quick cuts, shock edits, and layered sound buoy the atmospherics of his gorgeously shot sequences, and while it is clearly a debut production, Hark provides a preview of the high-flying, wire-enhanced acrobatics that would dominate his later period fantasies.

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DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND: DIRECTOR’S CUT
Dir. Tsui Hark, 1980.
Hong Kong. 95 min.

TUESDAY, APRIL 3 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 28 – 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 30 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

When Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind was originally submitted to British colonial censors, concerns were immediately raised in regards to the film’s anti-American sentiment, a certain sympathy with the sociopathic teenager leads, and a handful of smash cuts to photographs of Hong Kong’s 1967 anti-colonial riot. The film was banned, re-edited, and released in an incomplete form. For these specials screenings, Spectacle is proud to present the film as close to it’s original form as is possible. (Please note censored sequences are pulled from a heavily damaged archival source, and do not match the quality of the theatrical release.)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Please note admission for this event is $10. ONLINE TICKETS HERE

In advance of his feature debut NOTES ON AN APPEARANCE playing New Directors New Films, Spectacle is thrilled to host filmmaker and critic Ricky D’Ambrose for a special screening of his early works followed by a Q&A.

These four short films—draft variations on a theme or two, made between 2011 and 2016—anticipate NOTES ON AN APPEARANCE. (Ricky’s earliest, THE STRANGER, has never been shown publicly before!)

“D’Ambrose suggests that he’s searching for a way to make films that break with the dominant mode of independent filmmaking. In order to construct his own cinematic future—and the era’s—he’s trying to reconstruct its past.” – The New Yorker

“SIX CENTS IN THE POCKET is framed around Clyde’s errand for a woman named Risa. The less you know about what happens in the next 14 minutes, the better. Suffice to say, this seemingly low-budget Brooklyn chamber drama, is actually more like a classic city symphony from the 1920s. What to call it: Arch-minimalism? Sensational Bressonianism?” – BOMB

THE STRANGER
2011. 32 minutes.
An anonymous young man appears in the apartment of a young couple, promising the two graduate students a better, less insular life with him in Berlin. Attracted to what they consider the man’s political and artistic preoccupations, the couple withdraws from school, quits their jobs, destroys their belongings, and waits impatiently for the return of the stranger, who never returns.

PILGRIMS
2013. 14 minutes.
In a city afflicted by increasingly violent protests, a dying young man is visited in his apartment by a refugee, a political radical, and a priest.

SIX CENTS IN THE POCKET
2015. 14 minutes.
A young man with a small, diminishing supply of money drifts in and out of the New York apartment of a couple traveling overseas.

SPIRAL JETTY
2017. 16 minutes.
An applauded New York intellectual hires a young archivist to whitewash her late psychologist father’s reputation by eliminating a forbidding, potentially incriminating paper trail.

Total runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Ricky D’Ambrose was born in Livingston, New Jersey, United States in 1987. He studied English Literature and Cinema Studies. Since 2013, he has shot and edited a series of video-recorded directors’ talks for the online film magazine MUBI Notebook, and written film reviews and essays. Following these shorts, NOTES ON AN APPEARANCE is his first feature film.

FRIDAY, MARCH 9 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

Longtime Spectacle comrade Frances Bodomo will join us for a presentation of her work, her way: student films, unfinished exercises, completed shorts (including BONESHAKER and EVERYBODY DIES!) alongside excerpts from commissioned works, bits and bobs of inspirational filmic DNA, and audiovisual supplements to the feature-length version of her short AFRONAUTS, about the Zambian mission to conquer the moon.

In the hopes of revealing the wrong turns, false starts and experimentation that go into the launching of an ostensibly successful short film, Bodomo will also describe the compromises and glories of a burgeoning career in independent film – before turning the mic over to the audience for a (per-usual) no-bullshit Q&A.

Face it, Earth is over. It’s time to begin anew. We had a good run but like a dead goldfish we need to flush ourselves down the commode and hit the pet store. That’s why with eyes towards the heavens we here on Spaceship Spectacle are proud to launch our second ever (since 2012 anyway) SPECTACLE SPACE JAM 12ish hour Science Fiction marathon. Strap in and bare witness to all manner of creatures, craft, and colonization with visions of the future from here to kingdom come. The bleak and the beautiful explode like a supernova and your brain dissolves like freeze-dried ice cream on the tongue of God. We can’t promise any actual interstellar travel but it’s a nice vacation nonetheless.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24th – 12p-12a 

Noon – WARNING FROM SPACE
1:30 – CHRONOPOLIS
3:00 – DEAD KIDS
4:30 – MUTILATIONS
6:00 – THE QUIET EARTH
7:30 – TERRORVISION
10:00 – LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE
Midnight – FEEDERS

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

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WARNING FROM SPACE
dir. Kôji Shima, 1956
87 min, Japan

A rash of UFO sightings across Tokyo has scientists baffled. Sending a rocket up to gather more information and photographs is less than successful and everyone is left scratching their heads. In the meantime, though unsuccessful at attempting to contact humans, the aliens being to appear in lakes and rivers. The Pairan, as they are known, obtain a picture of a famous entertainer Hikari Aozora and transform one of their own from their starfish-like form into hers in order to infiltrate the area.

They bring with them a warning. Their planet is on the other side of the Sun and a rouge planet – dubbed “Planet R” by the media is on a crash course with Earth. Meanwhile the one person who could possibly deter this fate, famed scientist Dr. Kumara is abducted by spies who want to steal his nuclear formula. Can everyone work together before world is smashed to bits?

Jumpstarting the marathon with some 50’s flare WARNING FROM SPACE boasts hosts of tropes and rubber costumes to boot. Crack open your popcorn and drink your coffee while it’s still hot, we’re just getting STAR-ted.

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CHRONOPOLIS
dir. Piotr Kamler, 1983
65 min, Poland

A massive city lurks high above the clouds inhabited by gods and immortals who have grown weary with eternal life. To pass the time they create ornate structures and creates to bow to their whims while waiting for the “ultimate gift.”

Director Kamler (his first and only film) began work on this stop-motion gargantuan in 1972 and created it over five years on a grant from the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel of Paris and Centre National du Cinema. Almost entirely silent with a score by composer Luc Ferrari, CHRONOPOLIS is nothing short of hypnotic.

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DEAD KIDS (aka: STRANGE BEHAVIOR)
dir. Michael Laughlin, 1981
94 min, New Zealand

Special thanks to AGFA.

The sleepy little town of Galesburg, Illinois (by way of New Zealand) is being plagued by power outages. On top of that the mayor’s son has disappeared. Local cop John Brady (Michael Murphy – CLOAK & DAGGER, SHOCKER) has his hands full already trying to solve these mysteries and also deal with his college bound son, Pete on his own. John also clips his toenails at the breakfast table which is gross.

Against his wishes, honor student Pete has been trying to squirrel away money by taking part in weird scientific experiments at the local college with a dead professor who’s lectures are saved on tape. Soon Pete’s poppin’ pills under the guise of research but can that account for his…(wait for it) strange behavior? Are these murders somehow connected to the college? Why does John insist on his son going to school out of state?

The first part of a never realized trilogy, the film pays homage to the pulp of the 50’s and 60’s with a midwestern flair – complete with age appropriate actors and a dry sense of humor that really lands. Director Michael Laughlin was a producer on TWO LANE BLACKTOP and screenwriter Bill Condon, only 26 at the time, plays the first teen to be murdered. DEAD KIDS also boasts hot looks and a killer score by legends Tangerine Dream with a soundtrack peppered by the likes of Lou Christie and The Boys Next Door!

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MUTILATIONS
dir. Larry Thomas, 1986
70 min, USA

Special thanks to Massacre Video.

“In all the infinite vastness of space, in all the universe, there surely exists life – intelligent life – other than our own.”

Astronomy professor Jim McFarland (Al Baker) has dedicated his life to the pursuit of proving the existence of life on other worlds. Unfortunately for him he’s been right all along. Together with his “secretary, assistant, and loyal compadre” Ann Bennet (Katherine Hutson) and a group of true believers they take a field trip to a nearby town in order to investigate strange lights in the sky and brutal cattle mutilations (like in the title, get it?) Upon arrival they come face to face with a race of bloodthirsty aliens and the fight for survival is on.

Thomas flexes by making the most of what he has – limited locations, stop-motion antics, and a cast who isn’t afraid to give it their all. A passion project if there ever was one, Thomas’ tongue doesn’t leave his cheek but the film does an amazing job of not hitting you over the head with it. “It” being his tongue. The students all settle into their Breakfast Club-esque roles and everyone seems to be having a wonderful time. When the group stumbles onto a cache of weapons in a farmhouse McFarland remarks “Well this is unexpected.” without so much as a wink to the camera.

At it’s core MUTILATIONS is like 1950’s shoestring sci-fi armed with a minivan and a lot of heart. Fans of the almighty EQUINOX, the films of Burt I. Gordon, and fog machines take note – this is the cult film you’ll wish had been tucking you into bed since childhood. Also, it’s about friendship.

Another gem from our friends at Massacre Video, rescued from the void and crammed into your cerebral cortex where it will never leave.

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THE QUIET EARTH
dir. Geoff Murphy, 1986
91 min, New Zealand

Special thanks to Film Movement.

Despondent scientist Zac Hobson awakens on the sunny dawn of July 5th like it was any other morning. Going about his daily routine, he discovers he is the only one around for miles. Soon the realization hits that he may, in fact, be the last man alive on Earth. He sends out radio transmissions begging for any living soul to contact him as he relocates to a mansion.

He dawns a nightgown, destroys a church, and contemplates suicide before he finally meets the lovely and lonely Joanne. He explains to her that something went wrong with “Project Flashlight” that led to the disappearance of all life on the planet. Together the two play house until one day they run into the wrong end of a machine gun. On the trigger they meet the volatile Api and the three butt heads about what to do. Hobson fears a second burst from the glitch in “Project Flashlight” could wipe them out as well.

Director Geoff Murphy (UNDER SEIGE 2) showcases these desolate landscapes and a cast you can count on one hand. The emptiness is all consuming and despite a world so large one can’t help but feel claustrophobic. Relying less on the inevitable love triangle and more on the helplessness the film boils over with tension and hurtles towards an ending that must be seen to be believed.

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TERRORVISION
dir. Ted Nicolaou, 1986
73 min, USA

Special thanks to Ted Nicolaou!

Swinging super-parents Mr. and Mrs. Putterman (Gerrit Graham and Mary Waronov) head out for the evening and leave their son home with Grandpa (Bert Ramsen) to watch TV and bask in the glory of their new satellite dish. Unfortunately for them, the satellite has picked up some way out transmissions all the way from deeeeeeeeeeep space. These freaky frequencies are from a planet who decided to solve it’s trash problem by beaming their garbage to Earth. A monster gets loose in the house and it’s up to the Puttermans to put it back where it belongs.

It’s hard not to gush when it comes to the almighty TERRORVISION. With a perfect cast, Richard Band score, big rubber monsters, slime, and jokes on top of jokes it’s concentrated fun. If you’ve never seen this absolute masterpiece, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to right that wrong immediately. But don’t just take our word for it…

“TerrorVision is a caffeinated jackhammer molded into a movie. It’s goopy, hilarious, action-packed…all the things that make life good. Also it’s one of the few intentionally campy features that actually entertains, and boy, does it ever…TO THE ULTIMATE MAX!” – Zack Carlson, DESTROY ALL MOVIES.

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LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE
dir. Jan Schmidt, 1967
85 min, Czechoslovakia
In Czech w/ English subtitles

Special thanks to Facets.

Some time after the nuclear holocaust a group of young women roam the desolate countryside. Ambling about without a real sense of purpose and led by an “old woman” in military garb they wander around merely surviving. Soon they come upon an old man running a small hotel (like in the title, right?) and for only a moment it seems peace is within their grasp.

Far and away the bleakest entry in this year’s marathon LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE was largely unseen for almost 40 years after it’s release. Now heralded as a masterpiece of the genre and a favorite here at Spectacle.

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FEEDERS
dir. Jon McBride, 1996
69 (nice) min, USA

A park ranger is worried a crashed meteor is going to start a forest fire but instead it starts something much worse. Meanwhile, two dorks (director Jon McBride and John Polonia) are driving though the Pennsylvania countryside in search of a good time. The wind up in a suburb where, for some never explained reason, the town has been ravaged by a broken dam. They take some pictures presumably to eat up time in the film. Luckily for them there’s a babe at nearby gas station and they plan a picnic/party in the same woods where the meteor crashed. Unluckily they run down a fisherman with their car and have to take him to a doctors office where he dies. While this is happening the babes – Donna and Michelle – are being terrorized by the titular Feeders. You can see where this is going. Eventually they have to stop these bloodthirsty papier-mâché beasts from taking over PA and maybe the rest of the world.

Let us be 100% clear – we love this movie. On par with other jaw-dropping feats of SOV like BLOOD LAKE, FEEDERS is by and large the crown jewel of this marathon. The Polonia’s are the kings of 1990’s and if we have to die on this hill we will. It’s been a long day and if your brain isn’t silly putty by now it certainly will be after this. Think of it as dessert.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 – 7:30 and 10 PM
Tickets $10

ONLINE TICKETS HERE

The last day of March will bring two opportunities to see selected work from animator and former astrophysicist Ivan Maximov, scored by Brooklyn’s TELAH. You may remember TELAH from last June’s transportive live score for Mamoru Oshii’s ANGELS EGG. The lineup of the band has changed slightly, but still features the room-reverberating drums of Jeff Widner and bassist Evan Gill Smith. They were nice enough to include Spectacle programmer Erin Lemkey on keyboards for this show.

The band will provide new sounds for the anatomically unusual animations of Moscow-based Maximov. In his animated shorts, creatures both globular and mammalian partake in peregrinations of form and mood. Many of these shorts operate without a logical storyline, but are as captivating as a tank of bizarrely-behaved tropical fish. Between animations we will feature some quotes from the artist on the creative process, distaste for puppets, and the superiority of children.

Ivan Maximov’s work has earned him many animation awards in Russia, Germany, Italy, and Hungary.

 

Program time: 60 minutes