Desire is torture (literally) in Sek Kei’s astonishingly modern mood piece, a transgressive dissection of fraught queerness written by—and starring!—a young John Woo. Immersively filmed in throbbing 16mm, and soundtracked to yearning flamenco twangs, Dead Knot broods with tormented passion.

Filmed before John Woo’s more famous breakout film A Better Tomorrow, but released after, Heroes Shed No Tears is the true debut of its director’s signature gun fu action. An explosive combination of melodrama and bloody mayhem, this is Woo’s cinema unleashed—in all its balletic, operatic glory.