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Things to Do in Chinatown NYC

Chinatown is like no other neighborhood in NYC.

Its historic streets are narrow, shops sell exotic food, you'll hear Chinese spoken here and yes, you can find knock-off handbags!

This post shares tips on the best things to see in Chinatown, including where to eat and shop, where to stay, and other tips.

We are a group of locals who lead walking tours throughout NYC.

We have led tens of thousands of people through the streets of Manhattan's Chinatown and even a couple of our tour guides live here.

In addition to our vast experience covering Chinatown, we also run the very popular NYC Travel Tips Facebook Group.

We asked our roughly 200k members what they thought was best about Chinatown and we used some of their suggestions in this post.

The group is made up of locals, and tour guides, but mostly of fans of NYC who are planning on visiting or have visited the city before.

You don't need to be a member to search for and read the posts, comments, and recommendations.

Check out our group once you are finished reading this post.

• Plan Your Visit
• Things to See and Do
• Restaurants
• Where to Stay in NYC
• Other NYC Neighborhoods

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Visiting Manhattan's Chinatown is like being transported to another country and in some ways to another era!

Wander Chinatown's narrow streets, lined with tenement buildings over 100 years old.

Contemplate the neighborhood's past, filled with stories of Irish gangs from the 1850s and mass Chinese migration in the early 1900s.

While it may feel a bit touristy, if you look closely you will see a bit of China among the locals, their traditions, and the authentic (and inexpensive) food shops.

Walk along Canal Street for "designer" bags or shop for souvenirs.

If you like fascinating history, delicious food, cheap shopping, and a touch of the exotic, Chinatown is worth a visit!

Oh, bring cash! Not all shops take credit cards and small food carts only accept cash.

Let Us Take You Here

Join one of our daily pay-what-you-wish tours.

We also have a self-guided tour as well as an audio tour. See the section on tour options below for more details.

How to Get Here

Chinatown is located in Downtown Manhattan. It's important to know that because there are two other large Chinatowns in NYC.

There's Flushing in Queens, believed to be the largest Chinatown in the city and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, running a close second in size.

Getting to Manhattan's Chinatown is easy. By subway, Chinatown is less than 20 minutes from Times Square by the N, Q, and R lines.

We recommend that you start your visit at the Chinatown Information Kiosk at the intersection of Baxter St & Canal St.

Use this Google Maps link for directions to the kiosk .

Chinatown is easy to reach by a number of subway lines and buses.

• Canal Street Station: 6, J, M, N, Q, R, W, Z
• Grand Street station:  B, D
• East Broadway station:  F

We have two posts on the NYC subway that are very handy:

• Navigating the Subway System
• Which MetroCard to Buy

M1, M6, M9, M15, M22, M103

All the major hop-on-hop-off buses offer at least one stop in Chinatown. Read our comparison post on which bus company might be right for you .  

How Much Time To Spend Here

Any time of day is good for a visit to Chinatown.

It is quieter in the morning, but half the fun is seeing the hustle and bustle of midday and the neon lights at night.

If you want to get a good feel for Chinatown, try some great food, do a little shopping, and soak in the atmosphere, we recommend that you give yourself at least two hours. 

If you plan to eat at a sit-down restaurant add on an additional hour. We recommend where to eat below .

Keep in mind that Chinatown is bordered by many other fantastic neighborhoods to check out.

Adjacent to Chinatown are:

• Little Italy
• Lower Manhattan
• Lower East Side

THINGS TO SEE IN CHINATOWN

Here are the top ten places to check out in Chinatown.

You can get more detail on these and other sites from our self-guided Chinatown tour for a do-it-yourself experience.

1. Stroll Mott Street

This is Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street” where many of the first Chinese-owned shops and restaurants opened in the early days of Chinatown.

Today it is lined with Chinese restaurants, trendy bubble tea shops, and tourist-type gift shops.

Must-visit sites include Aji Ichiban Candy Store at 37 Mott Street and the Church of the Transfiguration (corner of Mosco and Mott Sts.) erected in 1801.

Our self-guided tour has details on these stops and others not included here.

2. Relax in Columbus Park

­Immerse yourself in Chinese culture by spending a few minutes in this small but lively park.

Here you will find many elderly Chinese people, who come to do tai chi, play cards, mahjong, and other Chinese games.

You will hear musicians singing traditional Chinese songs and playing lutes. Early in the mornings, you may spot a group of people doing tai­chi.

Though this park feels distinctly Chinese, it wasn't always the case.

The area where the park stands now and the surrounding streets were known as Five Points.

You may already be familiar with Five Points from the book and movie Gangs of New York .

3. Eat Fried Dumplings

On Mosco Street, head to Fried Dumpling, a tiny shop where you can get what some say are the best Chinese fried pork dumplings in town.

Just $1.25 for 5 dumplings!  

Forks are to the right of the register and there is hot sauce on the tiny counter across from the open kitchen where you can see your dumplings being made.

The ladies at the counter are very fast and don’t have time for questions so be ready with cash in hand!

4.  Discover the "Bloody Angle"

In the early 1900s, Chinatown was a bed of vice, and rival tongs (gangs) battled for dominance. The small, curved Doyers Street was a prime location for gang violence.

There were so many shoot-outs, ambushes, and murders on Doyers Street, that it came to be known as “the Bloody Angle".

The most famous spot on Doyers Street is the Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Chinatown’s first tea parlor, which opened in 1920.

The interior resembles an American coffee shop with vinyl booths and a counter with stools.

Unlike other food establishments in early Chinatown with their exotic mysterious appearance, Nom Wah’s décor was familiar to non-Chinese diners and made it more enticing for people to come in and try this new type of food. 

5.  Be Transported on Pell Street

Walking along this narrow and colorful street one feels as if they are in China due to the small storefronts with awnings and flags written in Chinese.

This short street has a number of interesting sites.

At the corner of Pell Street and Bowery is the oldest townhouse in New York City, built in 1785 after the Revolutionary War.

At 18 Pell Street, you'll find a dusty corner store selling traditional Chinese trinkets. It's been in business since 1957.

6. See a Giant Buddha

Opened in 1997, the Mahayana Buddhist Temple 133 Canal Street is the largest Buddhist Temple in New York City and houses the city's largest Buddha statue.

You can enter the temple’s foyer for free (dressed appropriately – this is a house of worship).

If you have time and a $1 donation, go into the temple itself to gaze up at the 16-foot-tall golden Buddha. 

7. Experience Dim Sum

Dim Sum is a meal of small plates of a variety of Chinese foods like dumplings, steamed buns, ribs, seafood, and so many other treats.

This is an excellent way to try many dishes for fairly low prices.

Traditionally, Dim Sum is served on the weekends only, sort of like brunch.

However, many restaurants in Chinatown now serve it on weekdays as well, though the atmosphere is much more energetic on weekends.

When having Dim Sum, instead of ordering from a menu, you are given a large ticket on which the waiters keep track of what you eat.

Choose your food from the carts being pushed around by the servers. If you see something you like, stop the waiter, point at the item, and give your food ticket.

We recommend some places to get Dim Sum below in our Restaurants section below. 

8. See the Mott Street Fish Market

This market is made up of a number of stores selling fish and other creatures of the sea at very competitive prices.

There are a few stores that sell greens and fruit but mainly it’s the fish that bring the locals in to do their weekly shopping.

You can also find a massive array of dried goods, from different types of mushrooms, squid, shrimp, and many items you probably won’t recognize. 

Warning: if you are squeamish, do NOT look inside the large plastic garbage bins next to the fish displays.

9. Go to the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA)

This museum is one of the most important national archives of Chinese history in America. Their permanent collection is extensive.

Over 65,000 artifacts, photographs, documents, textiles, and other objects document the history of Chinese Americans.

Temporary exhibits are highly topical. Several permanent exhibits are family-friendly. 

The  Museum of Chinese in the Americas is at 215 Centre Street.

Entrance to the museum is free for holders of the New York City Tourist Pass .

10. See the Majestic Manhattan Bridge Entrance

Though the first thing you will notice about the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge is the traffic and constant gridlock, take a moment to admire the grand archway and colonnade to the bridge. 

It was designed by one of the most famous architecture firms of the early 20th century Carrere and Hastings, who designed the magnificent New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

The Manhattan Bridge, built in 1908, is not as beautiful as the nearby Brooklyn Bridge (though that is arguable).

But, it provides an invaluable service to New Yorkers as it allows cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and subways to cross from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

CHINATOWN FOOD AND RESTAURANTS

There is an overwhelming number of restaurants, eateries, and food carts in Chinatown. This section includes our picks for the best spots.

For an even bigger selection, see our post listing some of the most popular Chinatown NYC restaurants that won’t break the bank.

You can dine fairly well in Chinatown for under $10 for a sit-down meal. You can fill up on amazing street food for under $5!

See below for our snack suggestions .

• Nom Wah Tea Parlor

13 Doyers St. 

The oldest restaurant in Chinatown, the Nom Wah Tea Parlor menu offers plenty of dim sum favorites like steamed shrimp dumplings, scallion pancakes, pork fried dumplings, and soup dumplings.

21 Mott Street corner of Mosco Street, basement level

Serving Cantonese Chinese food classics like lobster in white sauce, sweet and sour pork, and lo mein since 1968.

This bustling restaurant in a clean, well-lit basement-level space, is a favorite among New Yorkers hungry for a nostalgic meal at very good prices.

20 Elizabeth Street between Canal Street and Bayard Street.

This huge banquet hall is one of the best places to experience Dim Sum.

If you are a big group, you will get your own table, but when it is crowded you will have to wait in the crowded lobby until a table is free.

There is also the option to sit at communal tables.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles

1 Doyers Street

A small and cheap restaurant that is adored by New Yorkers. The dough that makes their noodles are literally pulled and stretched out by hand.

They are served in broth or by themselves with add-ins such as duck, chicken, or vegetables. Cash only.

Dim Sum Go Go

5 E Broadway at Chatham Square

If you feel like having dim sum but want to leave behind the mystery of pointing at unknown foods from wheeled carts, try this full-service restaurant.

Menus are provided with a full description and photos of the food. 

Joe’s Shanghai

Joe’s specializes in the ever-popular soup dumplings, pan-fried noodles, soups, and Shanghai-style spare ribs.

You can even order an entire fried fish covered in a thick, brown gravy.

Joe’s has been named “Best Restaurant” by the likes of Gourmet Magazine, Travel and Leisure, and New York Magazine.

Chinese Snack Foods

Fried Dumpling - 106 Mosco Street

This shop is a hole in the wall, but you can’t miss it as there is usually a short line to get 5 fried pork dumplings for $1.25.

They also have pork buns and vegetarian dumplings but they cost a bit more and aren’t as good as their signature dish.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory - 65 Bayard Street between Elizabeth and Mott Streets

At $5 a scoop, it’s a bit pricey, but they have unusual flavors like ginger, taro, coconut, wasabi, and black sesame seed. There are plenty of old-fashioned American flavors as well.

They also do a great job with familiar flavors such as Mint Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Vanilla Fudge.

Mei Li Wah Bakery - 64 Bayard Street between Elizabeth and Mott Sts

Juicy, tender and tangy pork fills their buns and costs less than $2!

If you are a vegetarian or just want to try something different, try the lotus paste steamed buns with the consistency of peanut butter and a taste similar to that of chestnuts.

Golden Steamer - 143A Mott Street between Hester and Grand Sts.

Tucked away in a small storefront among the bustling fish market you'll find the most delicious pumpkin steamed buns in all of New York City.

The roast pork buns are good too and there's an array of sweet and savory baked and steamed items ranging from $1 to $3.

SHOPPING IN CHINATOWN

If you're looking for jewelry, handbags, perfume, sunglasses, watches, wallets, shoes, etc. walk along Canal Street between Broadway and Mulberry Street.

You will have many shops to choose from. Don’t be shy about ‘haggling’ (negotiating) – try it and you may get a better deal.

Though we don’t endorse purchasing knock-off counterfeit handbags, we can provide you with information about where and how to do this.

Don’t forget that selling counterfeit goods is a crime, so be careful with whom you deal.

Here are some tips:

First, you can visit legitimate stores licensed to sell goods.

Merchandise can sometimes be knockoffs of your favorite brands or have logos meant to resemble those of fancy name-brand bags.

If a shop does carry fake bags, they won’t make it obvious and you will have to go to the way back of the shop and have a look.  

Another option is to look for illegal street peddlers selling knockoff sunglasses, handbags and watches out of suitcases or on sheets laid out on the sidewalk.

If they suddenly pack up and run off, it means that they have spotted the police.

For those brave enough, you can deal with individual sellers who presumably have better quality counterfeit items.

These hawkers stand on street corners (notably Mott, Mulberry, and Baxter Street on the north side of Canal Street) and will walk past you saying quietly “handbag, purse" to women or “watches” to men.

If you indicate you are interested, they will take you off to the side and discreetly show you pictures of the items they have.

If you want to make a purchase, you then follow them to semi-secret, but generally safe, locations to complete the deal.

For an additional resource to discover more shops in Chinatown , check out Time Out NYC.

GUIDED TOURS OF CHINATOWN

Free tours by foot.

We offer several pay-what-you-like tours that are focused on, or include, Chinatown in Manhattan.

Our  SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown Tour  runs twice every day and spends about 45 minutes in Chinatown. 

Sometimes, we run a stand-alone tour of Chinatown .  We also offer Chinatown as part of two other history walking tours. 

Our  Chinatown Food Tour - this is a 2-hour tour that explores both the food and history of Chinatown.  This runs on a weekly basis.  

See our current tour calendar for our tours, times, and descriptions.

New York City Tourist Passes  

Both the New York Pass and the New York Explorer Pass include guided food and history tours of Chinatown for free.

These passes can be very valuable if you are planning on visiting many attractions.  

All the major hop-on, hop-off bus companies have at least one stop in Chinatown.

You will get a narration of the neighborhood from the onboard tour guide while you drive through.  

For a more in-depth guided tour, consider one of the bus companies that offer a tour guide who gets off the bus with you and walks you through the neighborhood.  

Read our post on which tour bus is right for you .

Chinatown Walking Tour

Very few neighborhoods encapsulate the diversity and international draw of New York City like Chinatown.

Interestingly enough, this neighborhood sits in the place of a former famous neighborhood in New York, the Five Points, immortalized in the book and film “Gangs of New York.”

A relatively new phenomenon in the city, Chinatown is still growing.

Join Free Tours by Foot for a peek into this ongoing chapter in New York City’s rich immigrant history.

As part of the tour, you will see the restaurants and stores that make up everyday life here.

You will be approached by street vendors selling everything from exotic fruits to questionable brand-name handbags.

You will also get a chance to pass through important neighborhood centers like Columbus Park, where Chinese men and women congregate to talk about local happenings and play their card and board games.

All of the sites and stops in Chinatown will paint a picture that will make the world feel small while at the same time reminding you of just how big it really is.

Here are the sites that will be covered on the tour:

• Columbus Park
• Church of Transfiguration
• Chatham Square
• Shearith Israel Cemetery
• Kimlau Memorial Arch
• Edward Mooney House
• Manhattan Bridge Entrance
• Mott Street Market
• Mahayana Buddhist Temple
• Museum of Chinese in the Americas

Tour information

Reservations : This tour currently runs as a private tour only.

Where : The tour departs from the intersection of Canal and Baxter Streets ( map ).

Duration : Approximately 2 hours.  Approximately 1.5 miles (2k) in distance.

When :  View our full tour Calendar

Cost : This tour is free to take, and you get to decide what, if anything, the tour was worth when it’s done.  A  name-your-own-price tour  is a tour for every budget.

Save more money with a  tourist concession pass  and our  Guide to NYC on a Budget .

Language : The tour is in English.

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The Official Chinatown Walking Tour

• Family-friendly Tours & cruises Cultural & historical sites

Booking required

What you'll do.

This guided stroll around Manhattan’s lively Chinatown takes in a towering golden Buddha, a Taoist temple, Confucius Plaza and more.

Go on The Official Chinatown Walking Tour with The New York Pass®

• Pay nothing on the day – simply show your pass.
• You’ll visit the Five Points neighborhood, immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York movie.
• The headquarters of the ‘Mayor of Chinatown’ is also on the itinerary, as are Doyers Street and Kimlau Square.

Discover the sounds, smells and sights of Chinatown on this info-packed walking tour of some of its most famous landmarks.

Your expert guide will take you on a journey through Chinatown, weaving a path through its colorful narrow streets and regaling you with fascinating tales of the neighborhood’s rich and diverse history.

The Official Chinatown Walking Tour highlights

Mahayana buddhist temple .

New York’s biggest Buddhist Temple, located at the foot of Manhattan Bridge, is also home to New York’s tallest Buddha statue, a 16-foot giant seated on a lotus leaf who presides over the serene temple surroundings.

Doyers Street

Now a colorful thoroughfare packed with cafes, restaurants and gift shops, Doyers Street has a violent past. The bend in the street is known as Bloody Angle because of the number of murders committed here by Chinatown’s Tong gangs between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.

Five Points

Five Points was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 movie Gangs of New York . Take a walk through the neighborhood and hear about how it transformed from a slum entrenched in gang warfare to the cosmopolitan area it is today.

Confucius Plaza 

Visit one of Chinatown’s most iconic landmarks: a 15-foot bronze statue of Chinese philosopher Confucius by sculptor Liu Shih. A Confucian proverb is inscribed into the statue’s base.

Chinatown Consolidated Benevolent Association 

The grand finale of the tour is a visit to the CCBA, established in 1883 to represent Chinese Americans living in New York. The CCBA’s president is known informally as the Mayor of Chinatown.

Know before you go

This attraction requires advanced booking.

Getting in: simply show your pass at the Chinatown Little Italy Information Kiosk located at Baxter Street and Canal Street.

For more information, visit the Official Chinatown Walking Tour website .

The Official Chinatown Walking Tour tickets help

Ask our help team if you have any questions.

Where you'll be

Chinatown Little Italy Information Kiosk, Baxter Street & Canal Street, New York, US

Operating hours

Monday – Friday: 11:30AM

Tour times are subject to change. Please check the official website for the most up-to-date hours and availability.

Buy with confidence

Free cancellation.

Plans can change, we get it. All non-activated passes are eligible for a refund within 365 days of your purchase date.

Got a question?

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Don't know where to start, best places to visit in new york city, tours and things to do in new york city, best day trips from new york city.

Chinatown: Time Travel Through a New York Gem

By Michael Kimmelman Dec. 2, 2020

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Chinatown, Resilient and Proud

A virtual walk by MICHAEL KIMMELMAN Dec. 2, 2020

Critic’s Notebook

Photographs by Alex Lau for The New York Times

Manhattan’s Chinatown took a triple hit from Covid-19 this spring. On top of the virus, the White House stoked xenophobia, and the neighborhood’s traditional charms suddenly turned into liabilities with the challenge of social distancing in cramped restaurants and shops and on narrow streets. Ordinarily, millions of visitors a year pack those streets. They all but vanished .

Nancy Yao Maasbach is president of Chinatown’s Museum of Chinese in America. She grew up in Flushing, Queens, after her family failed to win the lottery for an apartment at Confucius Plaza, the Mitchell-Lama housing project on the Bowery, which, since the 1970s, has been home to thousands of Chinatown residents. “Flushing was still predominantly Italian and Jewish back then,” she told me. “I grew up thinking I was a young Jewish woman locked in a Chinese body.”

This is the latest in a series of (condensed, edited) walks around town . Today, Flushing’s Chinatown and the Chinatown in Sunset Park in Brooklyn have come to dwarf Manhattan’s. But the tiny community that took root by the 1870s along Doyers, Pell and lower Mott Streets, in what was then a slum called Five Points, remains the origin story for Chinese culture in New York.

The neighborhood began to grow with the arrival of Chinese laborers driven from the American West after the Gold Rush and the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 meant Chinese in America found themselves prevented from becoming citizens and denied other basic rights. Until the mid-1960s, only a handful of Chinese were legally permitted to enter the country. Chinatowns across the country were formed to provide Chinese communities with a support network and protective shield against racism.

An organization like the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on Mott Street — the C.C.B.A. — arose to serve as a de facto town hall for Chinese in New York, advocating for equal rights, offering social services and other programs.

The neighborhood’s insularity, working-class identity and pride, its architecture, demographics, culture and economy are all rooted in this legacy of adversity, self-reliance and resilience.

Doyers Street

Once you’re inside, click on the left and right arrows to navigate between each point of interest. At each point, move your cursor to look slightly left and right, up and down.

1/7 A view of Doyers Street from around 1900. Because their rights and job access were limited, many Chinese immigrants — overwhelmingly men a century ago — turned to jobs traditionally associated with women’s work: cooking, sewing and laundry.

2/7 Chinatown started on a few streets, Doyers among them, in a slum called Five Points. Its population grew in the 1880s with the diaspora of Chinese laborers driven out of the American West.

3/7 In this photo from the mid-70s, police officers patrol Doyers. During the 1970s and ’80s, some Chinatown families moved to what were then considered safer, more suburban neighborhoods in Queens.

4/7 The Rescue Society in the 1920s occupied the site of the former Chinese Theater. In 1905, a gang war started there, which helped give Doyers the name Murder Alley.

5/7 Nom Wah Tea Parlor, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary, for generations was a neighborhood hangout where people picked up their mail, read the newspaper and played cards.

6/7 Doyers follows the curve of what originally was a meandering stream. The street is named after a Dutchman who opened a distillery there.

7/7 Doyers Street in 1964, before the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which abolished quotas on Chinese immigration. Around the corner is Kimlau Square, a gateway to the neighborhood, where a monument commemorates the Chinese in America who died fighting for democracy.

Ms. Maasbach charted a walk from Park Row and East Broadway to Columbus Park. She pointed out familiar landmarks like the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association with the pagoda top at Mott and Canal Streets. In recent decades, Chinatown has sprawled into parts of Little Italy and the Lower East Side. Whole swathes of today’s Chinatown failed to make it into what follows.

But the walk includes a few dumplings at the venerated Nom Wah Tea Parlor with Wilson Tang, the restaurant’s proprietor, and dessert at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard Street, where Christina Seid talked about running her family’s business in the midst of Covid-19.

Ms. Maasbach suggested meeting at what’s known as Chatham or Kimlau Square. Benjamin Ralph Kimlau was a Chinese-American bomber pilot who died in combat over the Pacific during World War II. A gatelike monument in the square from the early ’60s is dedicated to Americans of Chinese descent who lost their lives in defense of democracy and freedom. It was designed by the Chinatown-born architect Poy Gum Lee, with calligraphy by a famous Chinese Nationalist calligrapher and scholar, Yu Youren . It takes the form of a somber, modernist version of a traditional Chinese pailou, or ceremonial gateway.

Michael Kimmelman The square has a second monument, too, dedicated to Lin Zexu , a 19th century Qing dynasty official from Fujian Province who figured in the Opium Wars in China. What’s his significance?

Nancy Yao Maasbach Some people confuse the statue of Lin Zexu with Confucius. The one dedicated to Kimlau was erected in 1962, three years before the Johnson administration passed the Immigration and Nationality Act , which finally lifted the quota on Chinese immigrants. The monument was part of an effort to end the quota, by pointing out the contributions of Chinese in America. The statue to Lin Zexu was put up 35 years later, in 1997, by new immigrants from Fujian province in the People’s Republic of China. It plants a kind of Fujianese flag in Chinatown. Lin Zexu was a Fujianese hero. The statue faces East Broadway, where Fujianese arrivals opened all sorts of stores and eateries — Little Fuzhou it came to be called.

Lin tried to shut down the opium trade. During the 1990s New York was fighting its own war on drugs . I notice an inscription on the statue’s base: “Say No to Drugs.”

Exactly. These new arrivals included some of the undocumented immigrants smuggled in by snakeheads. What the statue screams to me is, “we’re good people, too.”

Snakeheads, Chinese smugglers.

They were behind the Golden Venture , a notorious freighter that ran aground off the Rockaway peninsula in 1993 with over 200 undocumented immigrants from China. Many of the immigrants were from Fujian. They were detained and imprisoned by U.S. immigration officials, some for years. In 2018, the Museum of Chinese in America exhibited over 100 paper sculptures that members of this group made while they were being held. I will always remember the incredible art created by some of the Fujianese immigrants during that time.

You’ll notice, by the way, the different inscriptions on the two monuments.

Yu Youren’s calligraphy is on the Kimlau monument.

Which uses traditional Chinese characters, as the language is written in Taiwan. The Lin statue uses simplified Chinese characters, because that’s what the communist People’s Republic of China uses. Chinatown is as diverse as the Chinese diaspora. Chinese in America come from all points of the globe, from vastly different economic means, from an array of political systems, speaking eight major dialects and over 200 indigenous languages.

You see the diaspora reflected in the area’s businesses. One of Chinatown’s wonderful little secret streets, Canal Arcade, just up the block, is full of Malaysian restaurants. Grand Street, a couple of blocks farther north, has clusters of Thai, Malay and Vietnamese places. After the immigration act passed in ’65, Chinatown started attracting Chinese who had fled Communist China after the revolution and settled in Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia and elsewhere because at that time the United States was closed to them. Once America lifted its ban, they started coming here, often to reunite with extended families.

Earlier diasporas also shaped Chinatown, of course, like the one that drove Chinese workers out of the American West.

And now you find second, third, fourth generation Chinatown residents, many of whom maintain a strong belief in neighborhood preservation, which is why all sorts of old shops — hardware stores, food markets, barbers, jewelers — hang on. At the same time, the neighborhood keeps evolving. A lot of people complain it’s like Disneyland, that it has gentrified. But I see younger people adapting their businesses to changing circumstances — people like Wilson Tang, who runs Nom Wah Tea Parlor, which has been operating on Doyers Street for 100 years.

Maybe the most storied street in Chinatown, which became known as Murder Alley back when the city’s popular press printed racist trash and an entire racist genre of pulp fiction and the movies was devoted to the allegedly “inscrutable,” criminal Chinese.

Newspapers back then loved to publish stories about violence, filth and corruption in Chinatown, even though the Chinese community was still very small and other ethnic gangs operated in the neighborhood, like the Irish gangs. Doyers got the name Murder Alley after a Tong war broke out at the site of what used to be the Chinese opera house, now a hipster bar and restaurant. At the same time, the neighborhood was a tourist attraction. All sorts of chop suey restaurants and opium dens catered to uptowners who came to do things they wouldn’t or couldn’t do in their own neighborhoods.

Nom Wah is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in New York. I saw back in February, before the first lockdown, that Wilson Tang started posting #supportchinatown stuff on Instagram, calling out anti-Chinese xenophobia, trying to rally help for restaurant owners, who were already hurting.

Wilson is second generation Chinatown — early 40s with a background in finance, clued into social media.

Let me introduce you.

Hi, Wilson. Happy birthday. Nom Wah just turned 100. When did you take it over?

Wilson Tang In 2010, from my uncle Wally, who came from China in the ’50s and worked for the restaurant’s previous owners, the Choy family. My parents had an apartment in Confucius Plaza across the street, so I was born here. Then we moved to Elmhurst, Queens, because, to my parents, Queens represented upward mobility, like moving to the suburbs. You have to remember, during the ’80s and ’90s, Chinatown was a very different place. There was a lot more corruption. My parents’ dream was a house with a white picket fence and garage. They didn’t want me to work in a restaurant. But in college I got interested in my heritage, and I thought there was maybe an opportunity for a new generation in Chinatown.

What does that mean?

Back in the day, Nom Wah was where people in the neighborhood hung out, read the newspaper, picked up their mail. Dim sum chefs would meet after work, smoke, play cards. Chinatown was smaller than it is now. Today millions of tourists visit, or they did before Covid. We’ve had to adapt, for which I sometimes get [expletive] from an older generation.

Traditionally dim sum is served only until 3 p.m., but we serve dim sum at night. Traditionally dim sum restaurants don’t serve alcohol. We serve alcohol. We’ve also opened other restaurants, we’re selling frozen dumplings in the Hamptons. We just published a cookbook .

You’re selling out.

I understand where older people are coming from. I care a lot about preserving what’s special about this neighborhood. That doesn’t mean Chinatown shouldn’t change. Especially now. Business is down 80 percent with Covid. Many business owners in Chinatown don’t know how to adapt and they won’t make it. Chinatown’s landlords have underlying mortgages, they have taxes to pay and repairs to make, because buildings in Chinatown are generally very old and many apartments are rent controlled, or rent stabilized. So landlords rely on rent from storefront properties, like restaurants, which are suffering.

A vicious cycle. Businesses clearly need more help now.

Nancy Yao Maasbach Michael, let’s head to the C.C.B.A. on Mott Street, which for many generations has provided the neighborhood with a kind of lifeline.

I know the C.C.B.A. building. Kerri Culhane did an exhibition at your museum about the Chinese-American modernist architect Poy Gum Lee , who was born on Mott Street at the turn of the last century. Lee proposed a couple of versions of the C.C.B.A., which was ultimately designed by an architect named Andrew S. Yuen, pretty closely following Lee’s scheme.

Lee was an interesting character, one of 15 children. He was trained in Beaux-Arts design. For years he worked in China. He moved to Shanghai in the 1920s, then returned after the communist revolution started. We think about the current generation of Chinese as exceptionally transnational, but Lee went back and forth.

The C.C.B.A. building reminds me a little of my 60s-era New York City public school, except C.C.B.A. is festooned with Taiwanese flags.

Inside there are tributes to Sun Yat-sen. There’s also a statue of Sun in Columbus Park by Lu Chun-Hsiung and Michel Kang, which the C.C.B.A. installed not long ago to celebrate the centennial of the founding of Republic of China. Sun visited Chinatown and gave a speech at the C.C.B.A.

To raise money for the revolution against the Qing dynasty. I love Columbus Park. It’s one of my favorite spots in the city — redone some years back, originally designed by Calvert Vaux, who also did the park’s great open-air pavilion. The park is cater-corner to the former P.S. 23, by C.B.J. Snyder, another wonderful Chinatown building, with a tower based on St. Mark’s campanile in Venice. That building is yet one more 2020 calamity.

It caught fire in January. The Museum of Chinese in America stored 85,000 items from our collection there. It also happened to be where my mother, like many other Chinese immigrants, learned English, at the Chinatown Manpower Project.

At least Columbus Park is still thriving (fingers crossed).

It’s where older people from the neighborhood get together, play bridge and Chinese chess, do Tai Chi in the morning. You hear Mandarin, Cantonese, Fujianese. The park is next to the Manhattan Detention Complex. In the ’80s, my mother was one of those who marched to protest its construction.

The Tombs, it’s called. There’s talk about enlarging it if Rikers is closed . Community groups, not surprisingly, are again up in arms.

The detention center overshadows the park. I’ve lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong, in Chinatowns in Los Angeles and Flushing. There is always a park, where early risers go. Fresh air and “san san bu,” leisurely walks: both are essential parts of daily life in Chinese culture.

An ice cream before we end? I told Christina Seid we might stop by. Christina’s father opened Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in 1977. She comes from one of the oldest families in Chinatown.

I can’t say no to a scoop of green tea.

Christina, let me introduce you to Michael.

Hi, Christina. Thanks for taking a moment. How long have you run the ice cream shop?

Christina Seid I started working here when I was 12, so that was almost 30 years ago. In that sense, I grew up in Chinatown. But we lived in Queens. A lot of Chinatown business owners and employees live elsewhere. Almost none of our employees live in Chinatown.

Because it has become too expensive?

Partly. But what’s interesting is that this is still a very close-knit community. I’ll run an errand on Canal Street, which is a two minute walk from our store, and it will take me an hour because people stop me to ask about my dog or my mom or kids. They put food in my bag. It’s like “Sesame Street.”

What changed with the pandemic? Did you hear anti-Chinese comments?

Stupid people have always made racist comments. It just got worse with Covid. And business is down.

The good news is that we’re banding together — like around outdoor dining, a lot of which has been organized by locals . There’s now a neighborhood watch, to make everybody feel safe. Residents and business owners are cleaning streets themselves.

So you’re hopeful?

It’s tough. We’ll see. My dad says I worry too much. That Chinatown has suffered before.

That we will survive this, too.

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Michael Kimmelman is the architecture critic. He has reported from more than 40 countries, was previously The Times's chief art critic and, based in Berlin, created the Abroad column, covering cultural and political affairs across Europe and the Middle East. @kimmelman

Archival images included in the 3-D Experience:1. Alexander Alland, Sr./Corbis, via Getty Images; 2. via Museum of Chinese in America; 3. Michael Evans/The New York Times; 4. Irving Browning/The New York Historical Society, via Getty Images; 5. Emile Bocian, via Museum of Chinese in America; 6. Alamy; 7. Sam Falk/The New York Times

From Here is a collection of visually immersive stories that explore how communities are gathering in a time of unprecedented change.

Read more in this series

To create a 3-D version of Chinatown, we used a process called photogrammetry which converted the 4,447 photos we took of the neighborhood into a 3-D model. The model has been edited for clarity and optimization. Learn more about photogrammetry.

Photogrammetry by Sukanya Aneja, Mint Boonyapanachoti, Jon Cohrs, Niko Koppel, Guilherme Rambelli and Benjamin Wilhelm. Lidar capture by Dallas Bennett. Designed by Umi Syam. Edited by Sia Michel. Produced by Alicia DeSantis, Jolie Ruben and Josephine Sedgwick.

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Asia in Queens: Exploring NYC’s Largest Chinatown

Immerse yourself in America's most diverse Chinatown

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On our Flushing food tour – a full-day stroll through New York’s largest Asian neighborhood – we’ll explore the area’s almost mind-blowing culinary diversity.

A trip to Flushing can feel like taking a trip through Asia itself.

This diversity is perhaps best represented through Flushing’s stellar food scene. On this walk through the neighborhood, we’ll explore the area’s almost mind-blowing culinary diversity while also learning about Flushing’s fascinating history. We’ll visit vendors, the outdoor stands of local restaurants and some of Flushing’s mall-based food courts – considered by locals to have some of the area’s best eats – tasting delicacies from China, Korea, Vietnam and other countries. From stalls selling Hong Kong-style dim sum and snacks to bakeries turning out the Korean take on French pastries and a visit to a local kimchi maker, we’ll dive deep into the best that the neighborhood has to offer. On our Flushing food tour, we’ll take a look at some of area’s unique cultural markers, from a storefront Daoist temple to the Flushing Quaker Meeting House, built in 1694 – a testament to the important role the area, originally a Dutch settlement, has played in the history of New York.

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Kitai-Gorod (Chinatown): The booming trade corner of Moscow

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Kitai-Gorod (Chinatown) is recognisable and unique, permeated with the spirit of its five centuries of existence, each of which has left its mark on the area’s history. Despite such a colourful name, Chinatown has nothing to do with the huge country in East Asia. Initially, merchants and artisans settled here, later they were superseded by the clergy and boyars, but the district was still considered to be the commercial centre of the capital. The booming trade found here not only went in the Upper and Middle trade rows, but also on Red Square, where Moscow’s Chinatown originates. Here, every stone is a mute witness of many great historical events. We invite you to spend two hours delving into the fascinating past of Chinatown!

During the tour you will:

• Hear a lot of fascinating stories about the lives of representatives from a variety of classes - rich merchants and small-time artisans, noblemen, monks and clergymen, who once loved this area of ​​
• Find out where Moscow’s first printing house was located, why at the first, the printers were badly treated by the people, considering them sorcerers, and to what tricks the merchants resorted to, when attempting to sell their goods.
• Follow the routes of the hapless high-rollers - from the places of entertainment to the debt pit, all located in the same place.

Chinatown is not just a historical district of Moscow. This is part of the history of the capital set in stone, and although there are only a few fragments left from the famous Kitai-Gorod wall today, one can safely say that without Chinatown there is no Moscow.

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Birzhevaya square

Old Merchant Court

Old English Court

Chambers of the Romanov Boyars

Trinity church at Nikitniki

Walls of Kitay-Gorod

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A little bit of China in Moscow city... - CHINATOWN Kitay-Gorod

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“A little bit of China in Moscow city center” Review of CHINATOWN Kitay-Gorod

Delicious food, good selection of drinks (wine, beer, cocktails) I had a very good lemonade mojito. Good for groups and couples. Cozy, nice ambiance, reasonably prices. Service was attentive. Near 6 & 7 metro lines.

• Excellent 11
• Very good 18
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• English  (4)
• Russian  (34)
• English (4)
• Russian (34)

1 - 5 of 38 reviews

I am still yet to visit this restaurant but this place is my top place to order for deliveries. I have really enjoyed their fried rice and their tiger prawn dishes. Their chicken and pork dishes are equally good too! This place is a real value for money.

Moscow is a big city. surprisingly ir is difficult to find a good place to go out in night. This Cafe is an exception. if you are at your 20s. Location, prices, ambience everything is nice. But the age of audience is younger which doesn't appeal to me.

Nice place downtown Moscow with decent prices and good value for money (4 Euro for a pint of decent Russian beer). Live rock-music on most nights and you need a bit of luck to catch decent bands. Main disadvantage that once the band starts any chance of conversation is over; you will only hear the drums and guitars.

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A guide to local favorites in Kitay-gorod

• By Andrei Muchnik
• Photos by Nanna Heitmann

Although historically this neighborhood was called Ivanovskaya Gorka, or Ivanovskaya Hill, it’s now routinely referred to as “Kitay-gorod” because it’s so near to the same-named Metro station. “Kitay-gorod” is often mistakenly translated as Chinatown when, in fact, no one knows exactly what it means. One theory is that “kita” is a wooden stake used in construction. The neighborhood’s main avenue is Maroseyka Street, which quickly turns into Pokrovka, with very affordable dining options, as well as plenty of bars and coffee shops. In addition to many Russian Orthodox churches, there’s also a synagogue and a Lutheran cathedral.

Meet Andrei Muchnik

Born and raised in Voronezh, Russia, Andrei moved to Moscow after graduating from university. He writes on culture for Lonely Planet, the Moscow Times and several Russian-language publications. An avid theatergoer, Andrei tries not to miss all the major premieres in between biking around central Moscow and exploring the local craft beer scene.

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‘Dune Part 2,’ ‘Girlfight,’ ‘The Crow’ and ‘Bad Lieutenant’ Arrive on 4K in May

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

In this digital-dominated era, the allure of physical media like DVDs and Blu-rays remains robust, transcending mere nostalgia. These formats offer a tangible, personal connection to the artistry of film and television—a curated collection that one can physically handle, showcase, and possess.

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The upcoming releases for May, including the blockbuster “Dune Part Two” directed by Denis Villeneuve and timeless classics like “The Crow” featuring Brandon Lee and “Girlfight” starring Michelle Rodriguez, underscore that cinema’s pulse is ever-vibrant. These releases celebrate the enduring spirit of the films, highlighting that regardless of the prevailing trends, the cinematic experience is perpetual and revered.

“Dune Part II” (Warner Home Video)

It may be difficult to contain Denis Villenueve’s operatic vision to the small (or smaller, anyway) screen, but this 4K release, featuring a Dolby Atmos audio track and eight featurettes, will attempt to meet that herculean challenge. After mesmerizing audiences on the big screen, the pristine transfer of this disc offers a new opportunity to explore the moral complexities of young Paul Atreides’ messianic ascent. Releasing May 14.

“Girlfight” (Criterion Collection)

In her striking directorial debut, Karyn Kusama presents the invigorating story of Diana Guzman, dynamically portrayed by Michelle Rodriguez, set in Brooklyn. Oppressed by her father and alienated at school, Diana finds solace in a dilapidated boxing gym that becomes her refuge, offering her an outlet for her frustrations and a new sense of identity. Kusama’s direction skillfully balances the raw, intense boxing scenes with quieter moments of personal growth, emphasizing the film’s theme of self-realization. The authenticity of the setting and the characters’ struggles is vividly brought to life with a new 4K digital restoration, supervised by Kusama and director of photography Patrick Cady. The re-release is enhanced by a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, immersing viewers in the gritty world of the gym and Brooklyn. New interviews with Kusama, editor Plummy Tucker, composer Theodore Shapiro and an essay by acclaimed author Carmen Maria Machado provide deeper insights into the film’s creative process, themes, and cultural impact. Releasing May 28.

“Cry Baby” (Kino Lorber Classics)

In an era when Eisenhower led the nation and Rock ‘n’ Roll dominated the cultural landscape, “Cry Baby” features Johnny Depp as the quintessential bad boy, Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker. Depp’s charismatic rebel character captures the hearts of many with his singular talent for shedding just one tear—a trait that particularly enthralls the girls at his high school. The deluxe 4K UHD and Blu-ray edition brings this vibrant spectacle to the highest visual quality, including the original theatrical cut, now in a brand-new HDR/Dolby Vision master, along with 4K from the original 35mm camera negatives. John Waters’ vision in two distinct versions allows for a deeper appreciation of this cult classic’s artistry and thematic depth. Releases May 28.

“The Crow” (Paramount Home Entertainment)

Broth tragically and triumphantly, Alex Proyas’ directorial debut, an adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic antihero, immortalized star Brandon Lee upon its debut—underscoring the young actor’s charisma and screen presence even as it served as a eulogy for a career that ended far too early. Featuring a new 4K restoration, this new edition pays proper tribute to the film’s achievements and the loss of Lee, with two commentaries, a three-part documentary, extended scenes, and more. Releasing May 7.

“Once Upon a Time in the West” (Paramount Home Entertainment)

The greatest Western of all time? Perhaps. Even if not — and director Sergio Leone himself made a few films equally worthy of consideration for that title — Paramount’s 4K restoration of the 1968 film starring Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda and Jason Robards showcases its virtues more vividly than ever before. In addition to a ton of legacy bonus material, the reissue features a new commentary track and a featurette where Leonard Maltin sings its praises. Releasing May 14.

“Peeping Tom” (Criterion Collection)

Michael Powell’s 1960 thriller about a photographer who murders women and records their deaths offers one of cinema’s most piercing and thought-provoking examinations of the power of the medium. Long venerated (not least of which because of Criterion’s earlier editions), the distributor offers a stunning new 4K restoration of the film alongside extraordinary insights from the likes of Martin Scorsese and his editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. Releasing May 14.

“The Bad Lieutenant” (Kino Lorber)

One of the 1990s’ most provocative films, Abel Ferrara’s story of a corrupt, gambling, strung-out police detective investigating a rape case has lost none of its power over the years since its release. A New York locations featurette and a new interview with cinematographer Ken Kelsch augments legacy bonus content, including a commentary by Kelsch and Ferrara and a retrospective documentary, on top of a 4K restoration that gives the gritty film a sumptuous new luster. Releasing May 21.

“Sex and Fury” (Discotek Media)

This wild East-meets-West collaboration between “Thriller — A Cruel Picture” actress Christina Lindberg and Japanese pinky violence superstar Reiko Ike must be seen to be believed. Discotek media’s new Blu-ray edition only includes the film’s trailer as bonus material, but the arrival of this cult classic in high definition — much else for the first time on physical media in almost 20 years — instantly shortlists it for anyone who loves 1970s exploitation, and especially fans of its two unforgettable lead actresses. Releasing May 28.

“King Kong” (Paramount Home Entertainment)

Excluding spinoffs or crossovers, John Guillermin’s 1976 remake of “King Kong” trails a distant third among films with that title. But it’s not without its charms, including Jessica Lange’s debut performance and the only full-scale Kong ever created (never mind that it barely worked). Featuring both the film’s theatrical cut and an extended TV version running a whopping 46 minutes longer, this 4K release guarantees you can watch its anachronistic (but Oscar-winning!) visual effects more clearly than ever before.

“High Noon” (Kino Lorber)

One of the most famous — and controversial — Westerns ever made, Fred Zinneman’s “High Noon” feels especially ripe for rediscovery in today’s heightened political climate. Kino Lorber’s special edition offers a brand-new HD master from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, two new audio commentaries, and a dense collection of featurettes contextualizing everything from its production to its legacy.

“City of Hope” (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Though a handful of his films have begun to appear in the libraries of the Criterion Collection and elsewhere, writer-director John Sayles remains one of American independent cinema’s most underappreciated voices. Never before released on disc, his 1991 film “City of Hope,” about crime, corruption and redemption in a fictitious East Coast city, arrives on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with a new feature commentary by Sayles. An Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Feature, Sayles’ film is woefully overdue for rediscovery.

“I Am Cuba” (Criterion Collection)

Long withheld from circulation in the U.S. until Martin Scorsese and others mounted a campaign in the 1990s for its restoration, Mikhail Kalatozov’s propagandistic anthology film remains one of the most extraordinary works of cinematographic ambition ever attempted. Newly inducted into Criterion’s pedigreed library, the film is presented in 4K for the first time accompanied by interviews with Scorsese and cinematographer Bradford Young (Oscar-nominated for “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) and the 2004 making-of documentary “I Am Cuba: The Siberian Mammoth.”

“Steel Magnolias” (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Herbert Ross’ 1989 film starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts celebrates its 35 th anniversary this year with a new 4K release featuring remastered picture and sound. Included are legacy bonus features such as a commentary from Ross, the featurette “In Full Bloom,” and ten deleted scenes, as well as the 1990 TV pilot for CBS starring Cindy Williams, Sally Kirkland, Elaine Stritch and Polly Bergen. The film exemplified a particular era of “women’s films” — to be followed by the likes of “Fried Green Tomatoes” — and earned Roberts an Oscar nomination (and Golden Globe win), and its return to disc offers a welcome opportunity to re-experience it — perhaps for the first time in a generation.

“Rolling Thunder” (Shout Factory)

Written by Paul Schrader, John Flynn’s “Rolling Thunder” is a bloody, magnificent tale about a PTSD-afflicted Vietnam veteran (the beautifully taciturn William Devane) who enlists a fellow serviceman (Tommy Lee Jones) to exact revenge on the men who kill his wife and son. Shout Factory complements a new 4K transfer with two audio commentaries and two newly-created featurettes in addition to the film’s legacy content. If you need further incentive to check it out, Quentin Tarantino is reportedly recreating the film’s climatic shootout for his upcoming film about a 1970s film critic.

“The Departed” (Warner Home Video)

Martin Scorsese’s films have really only begun to trickle out onto 4K, but the arrival of the film for which he finally won a Best Director Oscar is a welcome addition to that slim collection. In addition to two featurettes and a whopping nine deleted scenes, each introduced by Scorsese himself, the 4K release includes “Guilt and Betrayal,” a new documentary exploring the origins of the film and its legacy — cinematically and within the director’s expansive filmography.

“Goodbye Uncle Tom” (Blue Underground)

Proper exploitation filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi decided in 1971 to draw upon true events to recreate the landscape of antebellum America and depict the conditions that Africans faced under slavery. Whether you feel they shed light on the extraordinary inhumanity of the period or were simply exploiting it in order to provoke audiences, it’s become a truly notorious film, and Blue Underground’s four-disc set includes both its English and Italian versions, a feature-length documentary about its making, featurettes about its directors, composer Riz Ortolani and other collaborators, and a CD of the soundtrack. It’s truly a gobsmacking film in many ways, but this presentation gives audiences a chance to assess it more clearly than ever before — for better or worse.

The “Ocean’s” Trilogy (Warner Home Video)

There are few films in my collection that are more repeatedly watchable than Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” films — not just fun and star-studded, but absolutely beautiful on screen. This new set offers a welcome upgrade, along with all of the incredible legacy content that audiences have been able to enjoy since they first debuted on disc: commentaries, featurettes and more. If by some chance you don’t already own these films, you no longer have an excuse.

“Andor — The Complete First Season” / “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The Complete First Season” / “Obi-Wan Kenobi — The Complete Series” / “Moon Knight: The Complete First Season”

Disney has always maintained a robust presence in the physical media market, so the fact that they’re now issuing hard copies of series that premiered on the company’s streaming service isn’t surprising. But for completists like yours truly, and the few fans of Marvel and/ or Lucasfilm who don’t have a subscription to Disney+, having these series on disc is a godsend. Personally speaking, I’m most excited about “Andor,” which is extraordinarily cinematic and has such beautiful visuals, but having these on the shelf next to theatrical MCU projects offers a new opportunity to view them in the context of a larger storytelling network. That they all come with featurette and documentary content to further explore their worlds is a welcome bonus.

“Fear and Desire” (Kino Lorber)

Stanley Kubrick’s long-lost first film first debuted on disc in 2012, following its restoration in 2011 by the George Eastman House. The film joins Kino Lorber’s growing library of 4K-restored classics, this one referenced from a 35mm camera negative, and pairs it with three early short films from the iconic director (also restored). Perhaps most excitingly, this set features for the first time ever the 70-minute premiere cut of the film, which in typical Kubrick fashion, the filmmaker cut after its initial screening. Meanwhile, the set also features two new audio commentaries and trailers for other Kubrick films “Killer’s Kiss,” “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory,” all three of which Kino previously released in 4K. (Feb. 27)

“Wonka” (Warner Home Video)

One of several films released over the holiday 2023 season whose distributor oddly downplayed its status as a musical, Paul King’s origin story about the mischievous chocolatier starring Timothy Chalamet comes home on multiple formats. In addition to a Dolby Atmos audio option, the film is supplemented with featurettes focusing on director King, composer Joby Talbot, production designer Nathan Crowley, costume designer Lindy Hemming, and real-life chocolatier Gabriella Cugno. (Feb. 27)

“Dream Scenario” (Lionsgate)

Even among Nicolas Cage’s idiosyncratic recent output, this film from up-and-comer Kristoffer Borgli (“Sick of Myself”) stands out as wonderfully odd (and oddly timely), about a biology professor who begins appearing in his students’ dreams — to eventually disastrous effect on his waking life. Though it was overlooked during the firehose of awards season, this disc offers a second chance to appreciate the Norwegian filmmaker’s unique perspective. The Blu-ray includes a commentary track from Borgli, a 10-minute featurette and a short collection of deleted scenes. (Feb. 27)

“The Abyss” / “Aliens” / “True Lies” (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment)

James Cameron spoke to Variety in December 2023 to commemorate the one-night theatrical re-release of “The Abyss,” which preceded the long-awaited 4K remastering of these three of his earlier films on physical disc. Updated versions of “The Abyss” and “True Lies” in particular have eluded collectors almost since the beginning of DVD, but it’s unclear if the versions released on disc will be the same as those that were criticized during their digital releases in December. Even if so, Cameron’s belief that “more is more” promises hours upon hours of bonus materials, some from earlier releases and others looking back contemporaneously. (March 12)

“Ferrari” (Neon/ Decal Releasing)

Michael Mann’s portrait of the automotive legend failed to make waves either at the box office or during awards season, but its debut on disc gives it a fresh start for greater appreciation. The release includes multiple featurettes focusing on Mann himself, the vehicles depicted in the film, the famous Mille Miglia race around which the fate of Ferrari’s company revolves, and the incredible lead performances of Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. (March 12)

“To Die For” (Criterion)

Gus Van Sant’s 1995 film starring Nicole Kidman shrewdly skewered celebrity obsession at precisely the moment it was becoming a national epidemic. Criterion’s new 4K edition was restored with the approval of Van Sant and cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards, and boasts a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. The Blu-ray edition (included with the 4K UHD disc) features an audio commentary by Van Sant, Edwards and editor Curtiss Clayton, deleted scenes and a trailer for the film. (March 26)

“Primal Fear” (Paramount)

To call Edward Norton’s performance in this legal thriller a “breakthrough” is a wild understatement; playing an altar boy who suffers from multiple personality disorder, the then-newcomer quite literally defined versatility with one unforgettable role. Part of Paramount’s limited-edition “Paramount Presents” series, the 4K release comes in a slipcase that replicates the original poster art for the film, and the disc itself features a new interview with executive producer Hawk Koch and additional legacy content. (March 26)

“Phase IV” (Vinegar Syndrome)

A graphic designer best known for the title sequences he designed for filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, Saul Bass only ever directed one feature himself: the 1974 sci-fi odyssey “Phase IV.” Oddly, its raison d’etre — phase four of its story — was cut out before the film was originally released, and not restored until 2012, but the film has since cultivated admirers leading to a bare-bones release in 2015, and now this deluxe edition in 4K. Vinegar Syndrome pulls out all of the stops for their release, which features newly-restored presentation of both the 84-minute theatrical version and the 89-minute “preview version” now including that fourth phase, a commentary track with film historian Matthew Asprey Gear, a 48-minute documentary by filmmaker Elijah Drenner, a featurette focused on the score and sound design, additional deleted shots and raw footage, and a gallery of promotional materials. (March 26)

“The Warriors” (Arrow)

Until recently, the original cut of Walter Hill’s “Warriors” was largely unavailable after Hill recut an alternate version that transformed the thriller into a comic book come to life. After first releasing an elaborate box set of the film in January as an exclusive as an limited edition featuring the original poster art, Arrow Video is now releasing it everywhere with different packaging and a bounty of extras. Not only does their set include 4K remasters of both the 1979 theatrical cut (in its correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first time) and the 2005 alternate version, but a new commentary track by film critic Walter Chaw, a roundtable appreciation of the film featuring filmmakers Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and Lexi Alexander (“Green Street”), interviews with the film’s editor and costume designer, and a profile of composer Barry De Vorzon. (March 26)

“Simon Killer” (IFC Films)

Though it was nominated for the Gray Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Antonio Campos’ psychological drama “Simon Killer” was never released domestically on physical media — until now. Costarring Mati Diop, who would go on to direct “Atlantics” in 2019, the film arrives on Blu-ray with a newly recorded commentary by Campos and his co-writer and star Brady Corbet, a separate interview with the filmmaker on the film’s aesthetics, another of his short films, “The Last 15,” and additional materials examining its making and its impact at Sundance. (March 26)

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