Season of cult Japanese movies to hit the NFT

Ever wandered wearily into the uninhabited foreign section of your local video store? Okay, we know many of the films have bizarre titles, surreal artwork and will undoubtedly hold that abhorrent word, subtitles, on their cases. But look past those first impressions and you may be surprised with the reward. Films such as Takashi Miike’s Audition or Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away demonstrate that countries like Japan are a breeding ground for fabulously original cinema that surpass many of the US’s big budget counterparts and lacklustre re-makes. And this didn’t just happen over night; it’s been the case for decades.

So thank gawd for the British Film Institute - those lovely people at the BFI have set up a fantastic new season of cult '60s and '70s Japanese movies at the NFT from 3 to 27 November - Wild Japan: Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film.

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There are lost classics from Japanese masters of film, such as Seijun Suzuki’s surreal gangster film Branded To Kill (1967) and Toshio Matsumoto’s unique, ultra cool take on the Oedipus myth Funeral Parade of Roses (1969). Stunning cult icon Meiko Kaji’s cool intensity in the legendary Female Convict Scorpion (1972), Tatsuya Nakadai breathtaking performance in the thrilling and disturbing Sword of Doom (1966) and Masahiro Shinoda’s wonderfully existential vision of Tokyo’s jazz-filled gambling dens in Pale Flower (1964) are just some of the highlights which make this a season of cult films not to be missed!