To fully understand the aesthetic regime of ’90s action cinema—from, say, Reservoir Dogs to The Matrix—you have to go back to John Woo’s masterpiece The Killer, which was made in 1989, is set Hong Kong’s underworld, and stars Chow Yun-Fat at his peak. The candles in the church, the slow-motion flight of the white pigeons, the overcoat flapping in the wind, the respect and friendship that’s struck between the moral hit man and the dedicated cop, the slow fall as the hit man blasts at his amoral enemies with two guns—this is the language of the ’90s. (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St,www.grandillusioncinema.org, 11 pm, $8)