No juegues con el fuego

Three friends out for a night of fun in daddy's car accidentally kill a pedestrian. The only witness is young, psychotic girl who decides to blackmail them. She forces the boys to participate in her misanthropic deeds, which eventually bring them into some Japanese bank notes for 800 million yen that belong to some illegal arms dealers. Wow, this is one psychotic movie! DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE (aka DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS: 1ST KIND) is Tsui Hark's third film and it is one angry movie. Opening with the scene of a mouse having a pin shoved into its head (sadly, for real), Hark makes modern day Hong Kong look like hell on earth with its grimy streets and claustrophobic apartment buildings. I'd like to think he is making a statement on class warfare, but Hark just seems like he wants to destroy everything in a wave of nihilistic fury. A final shootout in an equally crowded cemetery is the film's highlight. The score is stolen from all over the place. Tracks I identified were from Goblin (off the DAWN OF THE DEAD soundtrack), Jean Michel Jarre, and the disco band The Mike Theodore Orchestra. I actually wish Hark made more modern day stuff like this as I got tired of his costume kung fu drama porn rather quickly.

This one is a punk movie made by a young and (very) angry filmmaker, as dark as dark goes ; not one character is redeemable in this story where a bunch of amateurs killers suddenly brushes with the real stuff. The finale in the Hong Kong cemetery (already featured in John Woo's movies) is prominent remains breathtaking. A masterpiece, but be warned : this is strong stuff that grows up on you, the movie equivalent of music by Skinny Puppy, Korn or Nine Inch Nails. One of my favorite ever (It even was theatrically released in France as "L'enfer des armes" - "Hell by weapons", which describes it perfectly

Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind is wild. I kind of found it engaging and maybe entertaining (not sure if that's the right word) but it also might be easiest to respect/admire than enjoy in the traditional sense. It's about three wannabe terrorists who are also kind of losers, and then a more ruthless girl catches onto the stuff they're doing, and she kind of pushes the entire group to do worse things. Then things get more chaotic, they make a lot of enemies, and the level of violence/death just increases as it goes along.

It's blunt, but it does leave me feeling more than most movies that could be described as simple. There is a quality to it that makes it special, even though I didn't like all the decisions it made creatively or content-wise. It's definitely meant to unravel and feel chaotic, and looking back, that whole structure is easier to appreciate, but it did leave me wanting a bit in the moment.

It's a tricky film to talk about, and a trickier one to recommend, but it was something different and I liked it enough for that alone.

I love the heroine of this movie. She, a beautiful teen-age sister of a cop, is in fact a fiery, sadistic psychopath who dominates hapless (and spineless) threesome of students and forces them to participate in her reckless criminal scheme.

Even though the heroine is totally amoral, and sadistic etc., we can't but root for her because she is fearless and puts up a lone fight against..., against everything. She is motivated by dark and formless anger, and she controls (or tries to control) three students through fear and greed. This relationship between the girl and the threesome is the most interesting aspect of the film.

Their dangerous game leads to the involvement with organized crime (the triad?) and to the dire conclusion. The last twenty or so minutes of the film is truly gruesome.

The other characters in film are pretty two-dimensional --- the villains are mere killing machines, and the cop, the brother of the heroine, is also rather stereotypical loner cop. But the dangerous and out-of-control spiral of the four main characters is riveting to watch.

This is an interesting oddity if ever I saw one. It starts off admittedly lousily with a number of sequences that appear completely unconnected and which make little to no sense – so much so in fact that I initially was under the impression that this was a cut and splice film ala Godfrey Ho!

However, don't turn off just yet for things do pick up admirably as it goes on.

The basic story concerns three nerdy students who during a night of drunken revelry accidentally run over and kill a pedestrian. This act is witnessed by an strange and somewhat sadistic girl who's brother happens to be a cop. Following the incident the girl (who tortures mice in her spare time!) bribes the students to aid her indulge in her criminal fantasies or else she will inform the police of the fateful nights events.

Matters take a dramatic turn for the worse when the group of would be miscreants inadvertently take possession of some Japanese bank orders which are the property of some particularly sadistic American militia sorts. Added to this the Triads get wind of the scheme and want a piece of the action for themselves. The end result is pretty gruesome and riveting stuff, especially the movies climax which is handled with some not inconsiderable flair by the movies director.

Fans of shock and exploitation cinema should certainly give this a go….just don't expect a sequel anytime soon….