“If you like kung-fu movies, then you’ve come to the right place,” Wong Kar-wai told the audience before his film’s New York premiere. “If you don’t like kung-fu movies, then it’s time to change.”

    The event was held at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, and included a post-screening onstage interview with the director.

    Saturday’s premiere was the centerpiece* of a comprehensive retrospective* of Wong’s work, which began on July 12 and includes all 10 of his feature films. The retrospective continues with screenings of “My Blueberry Nights,” “In the Mood for Love” and “2046” before it ends on August 24.

    Wong’s latest feature, in which he seeks to reinvent the martial arts genre, reunites Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, the stars of his science-fiction epic “2046.”

    “I always wanted to make a kung-fu film, but there have been so many kung-fu films made before me and so I had to find my angle,” Wong says.

    The film tackles the story of “Ip Man,” played by 51-year-old Leung, who pioneered the popular Wing Chun fighting style and taught kung-fu legend Bruce Lee. (SD-Agencies)