REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : 2 Movies From China Find Their Way to Isla Vista : UC Santa Barbara is showing a double feature by Tsui Hark, one of Hong Kong’s new wave of filmmakers.

Everybody sees the occasional French or English film, but there are at least a couple of booming overseas film industries whose movies go largely ignored here. India’s is one. Hong Kong’s is another.

Hong Kong has the third-largest film industry in the world (India is second), and not all its films are on martial arts, either. UC Santa Barbara is playing a Hong Kong double feature on Friday at the Isla Vista Theater. Both are films by Tsui Hark, one of Hong Kong’s new wave of filmmakers.

“Peking Opera Blues” (1986) is a comedy set in 1913 China. The three female characters--a soldier, a geisha and a would-be opera singer--meet amid political turmoil and collaborate to complete a patriotic mission. All three end up with their personal dreams accomplished as well. Critics have praised the picture for its strong feminist themes and wit.

The second feature, “Green Snake” (1994), stars Maggie Chung and Joey Wong in an adaptation of a Chinese myth about two sisters. The pair are snakes that over hundreds of years learn how to assume human form. The film treats different types of love--filial, human vs. non-human and spiritual vs. carnal--as the sisters test out their new form.

The first feature starts at 7 p.m. at the theater, which is on the corner of Embarcadero del Norte and Trigo roads in Isla Vista. Tickets are $5. For more information, call 893-3535.

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The Ventura Theatre’s Sunday film series returns this week with its second installment, Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs.” This 1991 film, starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, marked Tarantino’s directing debut and helped establish the themes and cinematic techniques viewers will recognize in “Pulp Fiction.”

“Dogs” is about a simple robbery that goes awry. Violence, mayhem and foul language are all part of the story that’s shown in chronologically disjointed vignettes. The unofficial dress code for the Sunday show: black suits, white shirts, thin black ties and sunglasses.

The lights dim at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $6 and that includes dancing afterward.

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The Ojai Film Society is showing “Red,” a French film by Polish-born director Krzysztof Kieslowski.

“Red” is the final installment in Kieslowski’s trilogy based on liberty, equality and fraternity, the three virtues that the blue, white and red of the French flag are said to represent. Red is fraternity, the desire to find some common connection among people.

To tell the story, Kieslowski picks two characters who couldn’t be less alike: a young fashion model and an icy, retired jurist. When the model hits a dog with her car, she takes the stricken animal to the address listed on the collar, the old man’s home. She finds herself attracted to the jurist’s aloof manner. He is warmed by her innocence.

The picture screens at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ojai Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave. For more information, call 646-8946.