Di yi lei xing wei xian (Dangerous Encounters: 1st Kind). [original uncut version]. 1980. Hong Kong. Directed by Tsui Hark. Screenplay by Tsui, Cheuk-hon Szeto. With Lieh Lo, Chen-chi Lin, Albert Au. US premiere. In English, Cantonese; English subtitles. 95 min.
Banned by Hong Kong censors for its relentlessly and brilliantly staged depiction of nihilistic, thrill-seeking teenagers and its use of graphic photos of the 1967 riots that had threatened to topple British rule, Tsui Hark’s Dangerous Encounters: 1st Kind is mostly known in its various altered versions. Now, in a restoration overseen by Tsui himself (drawn, in part, from footage that survives only on VHS), we can well understand what terrified the censors in the first place—indeed, riots again broke out in Hong Kong in 1981—and what has since led to the film’s extreme fanboy following. Hark has made an incendiary jeremiad against colonial occupation and political corruption in the guise of an elegantly anarchical and perversely comical escapade, as school-age bomb makers get mixed up with arms smugglers, Triad mobsters, rogue and Keystone cops, and a psychopathic girl named Wan-chu (Pearl).
2K digital restoration by Spectrum Films at Lab Lumiris; courtesy Fairchild Media, Canada.