Bullet In The Head

Posted on January 30, 2026

The penultimate film in our Hong Kong Action Essentials series is Bullet In The Head, which also happens to be our final John Woo film in the series, as well. There’s no better way to end his chapter in this lineup than with his most brutal and personal film to date.

Three friends fleeing Hong Kong after a violent crime find themselves trapped in the chaos of the Vietnam War, where their loyalty and morality are tested beyond repair. What begins as a desperate bid for escape descends into a harrowing portrait of friendship under unimaginable pressure. As war strips away ideals and innocence, the bonds between the men fracture, leading to betrayals that cut deeper than any bullet.

Fueled by rage and grief Bullet in the Head trades balletic elegance for raw emotional devastation. This is heroic bloodshed turned inward, and a legendary filmmaker pushing himself into completely new territory.

Our Hong Kong Action Essentials series explores the time from the mid-’80s through the early ’90s, where Hong Kong filmmakers rewrote the grammar of action cinema forever. Directors like John Woo, Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Ringo Lam, and Lau Kar-Leung fused balletic gunplay, risky stunts, martial arts virtuosity, and raw emotional intensity into a new cinematic language that would be oft-imitated but never replicated. (sorry, The Matrix, we love you too!) Join us every month in 2026 as we explore this golden age where style and emotion collided to change movies forever.

A Better Tomorrow II + A Better Tomorrow III Double Feature

Posted on January 30, 2026

Our Hong Kong Action Essentials series is growing larger, darker, and more operatic with each and every chapter. There’s no better example of this with our special double feature of A Better Tomorrow II + A Better Tomorrow III!

Directed by John Woo, A Better Tomorrow II picks up in the aftermath of betrayal and loss, following survivors pulled back into a violent underworld they can’t escape. As old wounds reopen and new alliances form, the film pushes themes of brotherhood and sacrifice to even more operatic extremes, all building toward action staged on a mythic scale.

And then after a quick 10 minute intermission…Tsui Hark’s A Better Tomorrow III rewinds the clock, re-centering the saga around the rise of its most iconic figure amid political upheaval and shifting power structures. Steeped in romantic fatalism, this prequel is less about crime than about identity and the cost of survival.

There will be a ten minute intermission between each film. One ticket gets you access to both movies!

Police Story + Police Story 2 Double Feature

Posted on January 30, 2026

Witness action cinema pushed to its absolute physical limits with Police Story + Police Story, a double featuring Jackie Chan, the filmmaker-performer who redefined what a movie star would risk for the camera.

A smash hit that made him a worldwide icon of daredevil action spectacle, the director/star/one-man stunt machine plays Ka-Kui, a Hong Kong police inspector who goes rogue to bring down a drug kingpin and protect the case’s star witness (Chinese cinema legend Brigitte Lin) from retribution. Packed wall-to-wall with charmingly goofball slapstick and astoundingly acrobatic fight choreography, including an epic shopping-mall melee of flying fists and shattered glass, Police Story set a new standard for rock-’em-sock-’em mayhem.

Then, after a quick ten minute intermission, Jackie is back! Having been demoted to a lowly traffic cop for his, ahem, unorthodox policing methods, Chan’s go-it-alone officer Ka-Kui quits the force in protest. But it isn’t long before he’s back in action, racing the clock to stop a band of serial bombers and win back his much-put-upon girlfriend May (the phenomenal Maggie Cheung, reprising her star-making role). Boasting epic explosions, an awesomely 1980s electro soundtrack, and a showstopping finale that turns an abandoned warehouse into a life-size pinball machine of cascading oil drums, collapsing scaffolds, and shooting fireworks, Police Story 2 confirmed Chan’s status as a performer of unparalleled grace and daring.

There will be a ten minute intermission between each film. One ticket gets you access to both movies!

City on Fire

Posted on January 30, 2026

He thought he knew the risks of going undercover.

We are stepping away from the lens of John Woo to explore the eye of Ringo Lam, as we present his iconic 1987 action thriller City On Fire!

Ko Chow is an undercover cop who is under pressure from all sides. His boss, Inspector Lau, wants him to infiltrate a gang of ruthless jewel thieves; his girlfriend wants him to commit to marriage or she will leave Hong Kong with another lover; and he is being pursued by other cops who are unaware that he is a colleague. Chow would rather quit the force, feeling guilty about betraying gang members who have become his friends.

Stripped of glamour in favor of sweet, sweet desperation, City on Fire replaces operatic heroism with fatalism and realism, helping define a harder edge of Hong Kong action cinema that would echo for decades.

The Killer

Posted on January 30, 2026

One Vicious Hitman. One Fierce Cop. Ten Thousand Bullets.

Step into the operatic heart of Hong Kong action cinema with John Woo’s The Killer!

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim’s sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

What unfolds is a tragic dance of loyalty and doomed brotherhood, escalating into some of the most iconic slow-motion gunfights ever put on screen. See it how it was meant to be seen: loud and emotionally overwhelming.

A Better Tomorrow

Posted on January 30, 2026

Brothers by blood. Enemies by chance. Killers by nature.

Welcome to the birth of the Heroic Bloodshed era of Hong Kong cinema as we are proud to present John Woo’s masterpiece A Better Tomorrow!

When a deal goes disastrously wrong, loyalty is tested, friendships fracture, and revenge becomes unavoidable. As Ho attempts redemption and Kit is pulled deeper into moral compromise, the film builds toward a tragic reckoning where honor, survival collide in a storm of gunfire.

A Better Tomorrow’s influence is impossible to overstate: slow-motion violence, tragic brotherhood, trench coats, and moral codes, the list goes on and on.

Islands

Posted on January 20, 2026

In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom (Sam Riley) teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist (Stacy Martin) arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband (Jack Farthing) disappears, and the police suspect Tom.

Hard Boiled

Posted on December 22, 2025

A long-awaited dream to play on the big screen, god-level director John Woo’s Hong Kong action masterpiece, Hard Boiled, is finally coming to The Frida Cinema with a brand new 4K restoration!

Mobsters are smuggling guns into Hong Kong. The police orchestrate a raid at a teahouse where an ace detective loses his partner. Meanwhile, the two main gun smugglers are having a war over territory, and a young new gun is enlisted to wipe out informants and overcome barriers to growth. The detective, acting from inside sources, gets closer to the ring leaders and eventually must work with the inside man directly.

Hard Boiled is routinely placed in the top tier of action cinema, not just of the 1990s, not just of Hong Kong, but of all time. For many critics and fans, it represents the peak of John Woo’s “heroic bloodshed” era, combining balletic gunplay and emotional melodrama that filmmakers ripped off for decades to come.

The Secret Agent

Posted on December 22, 2025

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who has gifted us such films as Aquarius (NYFF54) and Bacurau (NYFF57), returns with the thrillingly unpredictable The Secret Agent.

A dynamic, shape-shifting epic set in Mendonça’s hometown of Recife during the late 1970s, The Secret Agent won Best Director award at Cannes. Wagner Moura was also deservedly honored as Best Actor at the festival for his magnetic performance as a widowed former university researcher whose life has been violently upended by the greed and vengeance of a government bureaucrat.

On the run and living under an alias during the country’s military dictatorship, he tries to escape, while also reconnecting with the young son he had to leave behind. Even this brief description cannot fully prepare the viewer for the zigzagging subplots and delights of Mendonça’s eccentric and affectionate ode to the movies and the Brazil of his youth—and to maintaining individuality amid abuses of power.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer: Presented by HorrorBuzz

Posted on December 19, 2025

He’s not Freddy, he’s not Jason…he’s real. HorrorBuzz continues its 2026 series with the 40th anniversary of one of the most unsettling and influential films of the 1980s: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Loosely inspired by the confessions of real-life murderer Henry Lee Lucas, the movie follows drifter Henry (played by iconic silver screen “that guy” Michael Rooker) and his volatile accomplice Otis as they navigate a bleak Chicago landscape. When Otis’s sister Becky moves in, Henry’s flat affect and unpredictable behavior begin to reveal something far darker beneath the surface.

Horror Movie Night takes filmgoing to another level with a full night of entertainment, including a themed HMN Video Pres-how, Trivia, Games, Prizes, and another outstanding horror short from HorrorBuzz’s The Screaming Room Film Festival at Midsummer Scream.

Doors open and video pre-show video begins promptly at 7:30 pm. Games, prizes, and short film begin at 8:00PM. Feature starts at 8:30PM.

This program is a venue rental engagement. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.