Master of dread Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Retribution, Chime, Cloud) made his initial breakthrough with Cure, a captivating, unsettling and thickly atmospheric detective thriller about the deadly impulses and social maladies that underlie modern society. Detective Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho, Perfect Days) has a peculiar case on his hands: a series of unmotivated, unrelated murders around Tokyo united only by a distinct X shape carved into each victim’s neck. With only scraps to go on, Takabe begins to suspect a mysterious, elusive and strangely transfixing amnesiac (Masato Hagiwara) might be related to the case.

Held high by the likes of Bong Joon-ho and Ari Aster as one of the greatest films of all time, this eerie blend of Silence of the Lambs-style procedural and astute social critique established Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of the leading figures of the late ‘90s–‘00s J-Horror wave and of contemporary Japanese cinema – it’s also one of our all-time favourites. The word ‘hypnotic’ gets thrown around a lot but Cure is perhaps the only film truly deserving of the descriptor. Employing a particular rhythm of long, wide tableaux with minutely detailed close-ups, Kiyoshi Kurosawa leads the eye to terrifying effect – by the time you realise you've been under his spell, it's already too late.