The Black Angel: Ddirector Takashi Ishii continues to explore his distinct vision of Tokyo as a dark, forbidding Technopolis, a city of faceless chrome and marble structures, cold lights, and deep shadows.

The Black Angel stars Riona Hazuki as Ikko, the most powerful female action heroine ever to hit celluloid. At age 6, Ikko was safely put on a plane to Los Angeles by hitman Mayo, but not before seeing her Yakuza boss father and mistress mother killed before her eyes.

Flash forward 14 years. Ikko returns to Tokyo seeking revenge for the killings. She too calls herself the Black Angel styling herself after Mayo, whom she remembers as a towering, almost superhuman figure. When her target realises that she is after him and his gang, he enlists the original Black Angel to wipe out Ikko and, the stage is set for a violent reunion...

(Dir. Takashi Ishii, 1997)

Gonin: Japanese Director Takashi Ishii's brutal hyperstylish hallucinogenic " roller coaster" of a movie takes a group of five desperate men through the robbery of a Yakuza gangster and the bloody revenge that follows. Ishii has assembled a cast of Japan's coolest actors including Naoto Takenaka ("Shall We Dance") and the legendary 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and his fluid, sensual camera work creates sequences of unrivalled ballistic bloodshed.

But what really raises this movie to a different level is the off-beat characters: 'Beat' Takeshi's sadistic portrayal of the one-eyed hitman, gay hustlers and downtrodden ex-cops give 'Gonin' an eccentric film noir atmosphere that will blow you away.

(Dir. Takashi Ishii, 1995)

Score: A gang of thieves come together for a jewellery heist, one which they naturally carry out in their finest Reservoir Dogs outfits. All goes pretty much according to plan until a pair of psychotic highway robbers follow them to their hideout and attempt to part the gang from their loot...

(Dir. Atsushi Muroga, 1995)