Nostalgia Kinky

Tsui Hark’s 1980 terroristic Don’t Play With Fire (Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind) is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen. Soon available from Cult Epics as a special-edition 2-disc Blu-ray featuring all three versions of the film and hours of extras, Don’t Play With Fire is a psychotic masterpiece from a supernaturally gifted filmmaker. A brutal and deliberately offensive film, Don’t Play With Fire is the dark heart of the Hong Kong New Wave, and it remains completely unforgettable.

Hark was just 29 at the time of writing and filming his savage Don’t Play With Fire. He’d previously made just two features, the cult films The Butterfly Murders (1978) and We’re Going to Eat You (1979), but he shocked everyone with his third feature. Based in part on a real-life theater bombing, Hark’s films follow four young anarchists as they wreak havoc on the streets of Hong Kong.

Don’t Play With Fire is an overwhelming cinematic experience. Hark’s ever-moving camera grabs us by the throat in the film’s nightmarish opening, and he never lets us go. Don’t Play With Fire is simultaneously exciting and disturbing. This is a horror film as much as a political statement, and buddy, is it ever angry. Don’t Play With Fire might be one of the most gleefully pissed-off films I’ve ever seen. This is Punk at its purest.

Don’t Play With Fire features an excellent young ensemble cast that is all blown off the screen by the incredible Lin Chen-Chi, who gives one of the most impressively off-the-wall and off-the-chain performances I’ve ever experienced. Chen-Chi is absolutely breathtaking, mustering more intensity and star power in single moments than most greats achieve in their entire careers. She retired soon after this chilling performance, hopefully not scarred by the part.

Co-edited by Woo Wai-Chi and John Chow Cheung-Gan, Don’t Play With Fire moves like nothing else out there. The rhythm Hark achieves here is startling, and so well delivered that even the censored version of the film retains this remarkable force. I don’t feel like I watched Don’t Play With Fire. I feel more like it watched me, and it probably still is, just waiting for the moment to throw me in the back of a car and blow me up.

Featuring cinematography by future Once Upon a Time in China cinematographer, David Chung, Don’t Play With Fire has a cool, near Cinema-du-Look feel about it. It’s a sleek and sexy looking film, perfectly suited for its very black heart. This is a dangerous film, and Chung manages to inject his photography with that sense.
Don’t Play With Fire looks violent.

Upon release, Don’t Play With Fire caused an absolute firestorm, fitting for a film this inflammatory. Censors immediately pulled the uncut version due mostly to its political content, not the gross onscreen animal violence. Cult Epics presents Hark’s original director’s cut on disc two, utilizing the surviving VHS footage that was cut. This is fascinating to see, and it’s a unique experience getting to see exactly what the censors cut.

Disc two also features a shortened version of the film, but my preferred cut is the 96-minute main feature on disc one. While it might lose some of the real-life implications, this version is still a firebomb ready to throw, and I find it to be the most engrossing of the three, which are all rewarding in their own way.

Due to its horrifying onscreen violence, much of it real, Don’t Play With Fire has not surprisingly gone underseen since its release, especially considering just how truly masterful this film is. Hark’s film isn’t evil, but the way it successfully portrays it onscreen is both frightening and mesmerizing. There are moments you’ll want to look away during Don’t Play With Fire, but the film is so goddamn great that it is nearly impossible to.

Cult Epics started out three decades ago. One of their first releases was Deodato’s masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust. To say that it is inspiring that Nico B is still putting out challenging releases that few others will touch is inspiring is an understatement. This Blu-ray edition of Don’t Play With Fire is one of their best. Featuring a new audio commentary and hours of interviews with creators sharing stories about the film, this is an excellent release. Best of all is the new 2K restoration, which looks evocative and splendid throughout. Soundwise, the wild soundtrack featuring lifts of Goblin and Prog Rock absolutely rocks the house. Cult Epics has even provided a music-only track so you can have a party to this very crazed mix.

Don’t Play With Fire is a cinematic Molotov cocktail thrown directly into the viewing space of everyone who watches it. This is magnificent, jaw-dropping filmmaking. It has all of the bristled up anger and energy of an early Sex Pistols gig.
Don’t Play With Fire will offend you.
Don’t Play With Fire will shock and traumatize you.
Trust me, Don’t Play With Fire is more than worth the pain. Tsui Hark created a complete masterpiece with this monster. I’ll never be able to shake it.

-Jeremy Richey, June 2026-

Order the deluxe exclusive postcard edition from Cult Epics or from MVD.