Country: Japan

For newcomers, it may prove a little difficult to get into and occasionally confusing but those already enjoying Kitano’s films will easily find several merits here that are synonymous with his best work.

‘Bubble Fiction: Boom Or Bust’ is a giddy cocktail of absurdism, social commentary and sci-fi adventure with the laughs eventually conquering everything.

It’s certainly worth spending some time in even just for the fantastic visuals on offer but may also draw you into the melancholic characters and the sombre story right up to its tragic conclusion.

‘Chanbara Beauty’ is an uncomplicated, intermittently fun, undead actioner that will please fans of the genre and the videogames.

Thanks to a mind-numbingly dull story and some weak leading performances, ‘Chanbara Beauty 2’ somehow manages to suck all of the fun out of bikini clad zombie slayers.

‘Chanbara Striptease’ is about topless women fighting with swords of which it has many scenes of, so if you want to see such a thing, then watch this film.

‘Chuji The Gambler’ is a superb marriage of a director’s craft and an actor with a transcendent charisma that seeps off the screen.

‘Confessions’ balances between cold hard reality and a subtly dream-like atmosphere that convinces the viewer that there isn’t a world outside of this horror.

If you are yet to experience the wonders of ‘Cowboy Bebop’ then this is as good a place as any to start and it’s bound to get you hooked.

‘Crazy Lips’ exists as a curiosity piece for people who adore bizarro Japanese cinema infused with nonsensical plotting and an abundance of sleaze.

This is still the kind of delicate drama that has enough of a hook to keep the audience enthralled until the end.

It does share some style and themes with Kurosawa’s bigger genre hit ‘Pulse’, but ‘Cure’ is a tighter wound and better executed film that lingers long after the final frame.