Don't Play with Fire

Director: Tsui Hark

1980 / 97min / DCP

Tsui’s outraged and outrageous third feature is a raw, tormented howl of hopeless rebellion that follows a trio of endorphin-addicted, bomb-planting teen nihilists as they get themselves involved with Triad thugs, gun runners, and—most perilous of all—a young woman (Lin Chen-chi) with a penchant for torturing small animals. Shredded by Hong Kong censors who blanched at its bloody-mindedness and its employment of shocking images from the city’s 1967 riots, Don’t Play with Fire (aka Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind) can be seen in a new restoration supervised by the director himself. An open provocation to anarchic upheaval, the blistering heat of its anti-establishment rage undiminished through the years.

A Cult Epics Release