Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain
A supernatural wuxia fantasy in 35mm.
The inspiration for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, this classic early 80s swordplay fantasy epic is what started it all. During a Chinese civil war in the 1740s, forces of good and evil face off in the Zu Mountains and, with no short supply of magic (lasers, flying swords, witches, sorcerers, and demons!), battle through the air and across mountains.
Tsui Hark's film finds its charm in the telling of spectacle-filled myth on a meager budget, where dazzling visuals and over-the-top stylistics make for a wild, wild ride.
Screening at The Dryden Theatre, on a 35mm film print from the George Eastman Museum collection. More details & tickets
PRECEDED BY
DAGON
A stop motion animation short film freely inspired by the story of the same name by cult author H.P. Lovecraft. In 1919 San Francisco, a man is standing on the ledge of a building ready to jump. Desperate, he relives in his memories the absurd and shocking episode that led him to the brink of suicide: the encounter with the monstrous and mythological Great Old One, DAGON.
Italy / 2026 / 6 mins
Content Warnings: suicide
ALSO PRECEDED BY
Rainbow War
Three kingdoms, floating separately in space, can each see the other nearby kingdoms but have no means to communicate or visit. Each has developed a fanatical obsession for a specific color for clothing, architecture, and even plant life: one blue, one red, one golden. A forbidden inter-kingdom romance and a war of conquest ensues when a means of travel between the kingdoms is abruptly found.
This short film was created for Expo 86, the World Fair in Vancouver in 1986. Screening on a 16mm film print from the George Eastman Museum collection.