Sunday, January 18, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
After her suicide, a woman returns as a vengeful ghost to haunt her unfaithful actor-husband on the set of his new film. Desperate, he and his crew enlist a stagehand skilled in Taoist magic for help. Miss Magic is a quintessential example of the popular *jiangshi* (“hopping vampire”) films of the 1980s and 1990s. The juxtaposition of Qing dynasty-clad *jiangshi* within a modern setting reflects Hong Kong’s anxieties over its impending 1997 “handover” from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China. Director: Fung Hak-on. Screenwriter: Pang Chi-Ming. With: Petrina Fung Bo-Bo, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, Norman Tsui Siu-Keung, Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan. This legendary *chanbara* (samurai sword-fighting) film is an English-dubbed, recut amalgamation of the first two Japanese *Lone Wolf and Cub* films (1972). Based on the manga series of the same name (1970–76), the films are widely credited with popularizing the trope of a grizzled, vengeful warrior charged with protecting a young child. The film gained notoriety in the U.K. in 1983 during the “Video Nasties” moral panic over its perceived obscene content, causing it to fall out of circulation for more than a decade. 35mm, color, English, 90 min. Director: Misumi Kenji, Robert Houston. Screenwriters: Koike Kazuo, Kojima Goseki, Robert Houston. With: Wakayama Tomisaburō, Matsuo Kayo, Kobayashi Aki, Tomikawa Akihiro. *—guest programmer Janet Louie*