Once Upon a Time in China

Posted on January 30, 2026

Never was a Hero needed more…

Once Upon A Time In China, Writer-producer-director Tsui Hark’s sprawling vision of a changing nineteenth-century China, is coming back to The Frida Cinema!

This blockbuster hit cemented Jet Li’s status as the greatest martial-arts superstar of his generation. Li displays his stunning, fast-and-fluid fighting style as the legendary martial-arts teacher and doctor Wong Fei-hung, who, with a band of disciples, battles a host of nefarious forces, foreign and local, who are threatening Chinese sovereignty as British and American imperialists encroach upon the Mainland.

Once Upon a Time in China’s breathtaking blend of kung fu, comedy, romance, and melodrama climaxes in a whirlwind guns-vs-fists finale that is also a thrilling affirmation of Chinese cultural identity.

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.

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.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Hosted by Arnold Leibovit

Posted on January 30, 2026

The Frida Cinema is proud to present a special 75th Anniversary screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the most important science fiction films ever made whose message has only grown more urgent with time! Plus, get there early and see the iconic 8-Foot-Tall Gort Robot live-on-stage!

Starring Michael Rennie in his unforgettable performance as Klaatu, this 20th Century Fox landmark follows an alien emissary who arrives on Earth with a message that could save humanity…or doom it! At his side the towering Gort Robot whose silent presence became a legend of science fiction design. Directed by Academy Award winner Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound Of Music, The Haunting, Star Trek: The Motion Feature) The Day the Earth Stood Still rejected spectacle in favor of moral urgency during a time of high-anxiety, making it evergreen filmmaking at its finest.

Bernard Herrmann’s revolutionary score, featuring eerie theremins and groundbreaking electronic instrumentation, forever changed the sound of Science Fiction cinema. Lauded worldwide and praised by critics for its intelligence and restraint, the film was selected by the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance.

Arnold Leibovit, a personal friend of Robert Wise, will host the evening and present two more of George Pal’s Academy Award-winning Puppetoons he’s restored: “A Hatful of Dreams” featuring a DC Comics use of Superman and “The Gay Knighties” with a mischievous Ogre.

Also: please join us for Bonus pre-screening of The Puppetoon Movie – A Legacy Revisited, at 5:00PM, a behind-the-scenes look into the making of The Puppetoon Movie with Joe Dante (Gremlins), Floyd Norman(Walt Disney animator – Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book), Peter Lord (Aardman Animations – Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit), Dennis Muren (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), Phil Tippett (Starship Troopers), Mick Garris (Critters 2), Bob Kurtz (Animation Director), Marc Caballero & Seamus Walsh (Screen Novelties Directors), Art Clokey (Gumby Creator), Dallas McKennon (Actor), Jerry Beck (animation historian) and others. Produced & Directed by Arnold Leibovit with archival narration by Paul Frees. This showing will coincide with the new restoraton Blu-ray release of The Puppetoon Movie.

4:00PM Doors Open
5:00PM A Puppetoon Movie: A Legacy Revisited documentary (introduction by Arnold Leibovit)
7:00PM Two Puppetoons shorts + The Day The Earth Stood Still (introduction by Arnold Leibovit)

Tickets are $20 to this event. Frida Cinema comp passes and member discounts do not apply.

The Witch: Presented by Play It By Fear

Posted on January 23, 2026

Evil takes many forms.

Play It By Fear (@playitbyfear.33) continues their brand new Sunday Scaries series by delving into the dark world of Robert Eggers’ 2016 New England nightmare The VVitch.

In 1630, a farmer relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of a forest where strange, unsettling things happen. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love are tested in shocking ways.

Never too far from our programming line, The VVitch has stood the test of time over the past ten years, forever changing the landscape of Indie Horror as we know it.

The Annihilation of Fish + Pre-Recorded Introduction by Robert Daniels

Posted on January 23, 2026

Just added: Robert Daniels, the Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com, will be giving a pre-recorded introduction before each screening of The Annihilation Of Fish!

Robert has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reverse Shot, Screen Daily, and the Criterion Collection. He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto to the Berlinale and Locarno. He lives in Chicago, and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association

The final film in our Three By Charles Burnett series is his charming 1999 drama The Annihilation Of Fish, now restored in a beautiful 4K restoration!

Lynn Redgrave plays Poinsettia, a former housewife with an imagined lover in the form of 19th-century composer Giacomo Puccini. She moves into a Los Angeles boarding house with an energetic landlady (Margot Kidder) where she meets a Jamaican widower, Fish (James Earl Jones), who has recently been released from a mental institution despite his continued battles against unseen demons. In the face of personal challenges and differences, the couple grows together and begins to discover new things about themselves and the nuances of love and happiness.

Released in partnership with Milestone Films, restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Posted on January 23, 2026

William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights is coming to The Frida Cinema as part of our Page To Screen series!

Based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, the timeless story follows orphan Heathcliff, as he is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

This adaptation remains one of the definitive screen versions of Brontë’s novel and a landmark of Golden Age Hollywood romantic drama, admired for its visual poetry and enduring performances from Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier.

To Sleep with Anger

Posted on January 23, 2026

A slow-burning masterwork of the early 1990s, To Sleep With Anger is a singular piece of American mythmaking that we are honored to include as part of our Three By Charles Burnett series!

In a towering performance, Danny Glover plays the enigmatic southern drifter Harry, a devilish charmer who turns up out of the blue on the South Central Los Angeles doorstep of his old friends. In short order, Harry’s presence seems to cast a chaotic spell on what appeared to be a peaceful household, exposing smoldering tensions between parents and children, tradition and change, virtue and temptation.

Interweaving evocative strains of gospel and blues with rich, poetic-realist images, To Sleep with Anger is a sublimely stirring film from an autonomous artistic sensibility; a portrait of family resilience steeped in the traditions of African American mysticism and folklore.

Desert Hearts

Posted on January 23, 2026

Just added: Frida Board Member/Trivia Night host Atalia Lopez (Chapman University) and Porter Gilberg (Frida Director of Development) will join us Monday 2/9 at 8:00PM for a pre-screening presentation on the film’s literary history and cinematic influences. An interactive discussion will take place immediately following the film.

Celebrate 40 years since the release of Donna Deitch’s swooning and sensual first film, Desert Hearts!

Groundbreaking upon its 1986 release, the 1959-set film, an adaptation of a beloved novel by Jane Rule, stars straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver), who arrives in Reno to file for divorce, but winds up catching the eye of someone new, the younger free spirit Cay (Patricia Charbonneau). From there, the movie becomes a touching and slow seduction that unfolds against the breathtaking desert landscape.

With smoldering chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by Robert Elswit, Desert Hearts beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candor.

Millennium Mambo

Posted on January 23, 2026

A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s marvel Millenium Mambo is coming back to The Frida as a Volunteer Of The Month pick courtesy of the amazing Shreshta!

Thee film stars Shu Qi (The Assassin) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui.

Thank you to our friends at Kino Lorber for the stunning 4K restoration of this evocative portrayal of youth and Taipei at the turn of the millennium.