It's Unstreamable! Where Jas Keimig and Chase Burns recommend movies and TV shows you can't watch on major streaming services in the United States. We post on Wednesdays unless we're tired or busy 😊
Got a recommendation? Give us the scoop at unstreamablemovies@gmail.com.
ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN
Hong Kong, 1983, 95 min, Dir. Tsui Hark
A soldier running away from battle stumbles into a mystical realm filled with flying warriors, demon cults, and a master whose eyebrows can literally lift heavy objects. And that’s just the opening scenes. Zu represents a pivotal moment where Hong Kong cinema crashed headfirst into Hollywood technology—and the results are very fun and very chaotic.
Hong Kong New Wave director Tsui Hark, fresh from film school in Texas and interested in both Chinese mythology and American special effects, assembled a team that included animation and SFX veterans from Star Wars, Tron, and Blade Runner. The final result feels like what might've happened if George Lucas adapted ancient Chinese folklore after downing way too many Red Bulls.
This genre-bending spectacle was so influential it directly inspired director John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. But while that movie is always streamable, Zu fell victim to a familiar pattern: In 2001, Tsui revisited the story and directed The Legend of Zu; Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax acquired it in 2002 along with Hero and Shaolin Soccer during the post-Crouching Tiger boom. Zu, however, was dramatically reworked and reframed as a love story, eventually being relegated to DVD in 2005. It's a bumpy journey that echoes other Miramax acquisitions of the Weinstein era—like director Bong Joon-ho and Snowpiercer's battle against the infamous "Harvey Scissorhands" treatment. CHASE BURNS
Multiple cuts of Zu are available in the director's section at Scarecrow Video under TSUI HARK.
France, 2002, 90 min, Dir. Claire Denis
Traffic has never been as sexy as it is in Claire Denis's Friday Night. Could your next warm-handed lover be sitting in the car next to you? Or locking eyes with you as they cross the street? Friday Night sensually explores that possibility, taking place during an inky black Parisian night.
The day before Laure (Valérie Lemercier) moves in with her boyfriend, she gets caught in a traffic jam on her way to a friend's house due to a Paris transit strike. She's encouraged by the radio to pick up pedestrians, and so the gruff-but-kind-eyed Jean (Vincent Lindon) gets into her car. The attraction is immediate. Laure ends up canceling her plans to roll around with this stranger, eat pizza, and fantasize with him. Their relationship doesn't exist outside the confines of that night, but it's wonderfully delicious in its spontaneity and impermanence.
I stumbled on Friday Night after reading about another one-night stand film, Barry Johnson's Medicine for Melancholy. Johnson, a noted Denis fan, said he took a lot of inspiration for his feature from the French director. The similarities are apparent. I've never longed for traffic as I did after this film. JAS KEIMIG
Find it in the Directors section under Denis, Claire. Or rent it by mail.
Looking for more? Browse our big list of 350+ hard-to-find movies over on The Stranger.
The fine print: Unstreamable means we couldn't find it on Netflix, Hulu, Shudder, Disney+, or any of the other hundreds of streaming services available in the United States. We also couldn't find it available for rent or purchase through platforms like Prime Video or iTunes. We don't consider films on sites that interrupt with commercial breaks, like Tubi, to be streamable. Tubi is like Neu Cable. And yes, we know you can find many things online illegally, but we don't consider user-generated videos, like unauthorized YouTube uploads, to be streamable.
