Hayley Scanlon

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MINATO NO NIHON MUSUME

A melancholy romantic melodrama of globalising pre-war Japan, Hiroshi Shimizu’s late silent masterpiece features striking visual technique, along with some of the best intertitles ever committed to screen.

ZANGIKU MONOGATARI

Kenji Mizoguchi’s late 19th-century tale of an arrogant actor’s path to professional success and personal redemption, bought for him by the self-sacrificing servant girl his family forbid him to marry, is endlessly heartbreaking.

I, the Executioner

Tai Kato's little seen serial-killer thriller, co-scripted by none other than Yoji Yamada, is a grimy investigation of post-war morality that arrives with serious menace and a proto-giallo sensibility, all tied together by Kato’s characteristic visual flair.

SHO O SUTEYO, MACHI E DEYO (THROW AWAY YOUR BOOKS, LET'S GO INTO THE STREETS)

A tale of post-war alienation, Shuji Terayama’s anarchic, avant-garde masterpiece defies explanation but embodies a spirit of pure rebellion.

UNI TO DOKUYAKU

Kei Kumai’s films often dealt with controversial subjects, and this strikingly composed adaptation of a Shusaku Endo novel is no exception in its chilling exploration of the depths of human cruelty.

My Heart Is That Eternal Rose

An achingly beautiful take on heroic bloodshed by Patrick Tam, in which the gangster society conspires to destroy love in all its forms.

BLACK SNOW

Featuring a heartbreaking performance by Jiang Wen, Xei Fei’s noirish tale of loneliness and despair is a profoundly moving exploration of displacement and futility in post-Tiananmen China.

Jin-Roh

Beautifully drawn and emotionally devastating, Okiura’s uncompromising animation is an infinitely bleak tale of the destructive and dehumanising quality of authoritarianism.

Peppermint Candy

In Lee’s fatalistic tale of one man’s slow-burn destruction stands in for that of his nation, peppermint candy becomes a poignant symbol of ruined innocence.

Diqiu zuihou de yewan

Bi Gan’s mesmerising, neon-lit romantic noir features a 59-minute single take in 3D but captivates with its intensely melancholy atmosphere of irresolvable longing and frustrated desire.

Further remarks

The film I most regret omitting is Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times, which I’d have loved to include for its wonderful opening sequence. There are many other films which I might have chosen and whose absence I miss, but really the list is endless. These are 10 which in their own way speak to the infinite possibilities of cinema.