Police Story

King Hu's epic swordplay saga combines ghost story, martial arts mastery and Buddhist mythology to stunning, hypnotic effect.

Adapted from Noh and Kabuki theatre, Kurosawa’s classic tale of deception sees a lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks to bypass an enemy roadblock.

Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai movie - a story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress - was famously a key inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars.

Kurosawa’s classic about a drifting samurai who plays two gangs off against each other, famously remade as A Fistful of Dollars.

Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

King Hu's epic swordplay saga combines ghost story, martial arts mastery and Buddhist mythology to stunning, hypnotic effect.

Tom Tykwer’s breathtaking time-loop thriller, with a terrific Franka Potente as the titular runner attempting to save her boyfriend.

A travelling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal, in Robert Rodriguez’s infamous ‘no budget’ exemplar of DIY action cinema.

This rollicking take on Dumas’ swashbuckler, packed with lavish spectacle and high-stakes drama, slayed all Hollywood films at the French box-office.

This wildly violent ‘70s Japanese sexploitation film about a gambler hunting her father’s killers was a key influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill series.

Acclaimed filmmaker Karim Aïnouz’s Brazilian erotic noir sees an escaped young hustler flee to a roadside sex motel run by a hot-headed couple.

Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning tale of two brothers joining the fight for Irish independence in the 1920s, starring Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney

A young man seeks those responsible for his social activist mother’s disappearance, in this intense thriller from Amat Escalante (Heli, The Untamed).

Gaspar Noé's retina-searing shocker about an assault and its revenge, told in reverse chronology and starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.

Gaspar Noé's visually dazzling feast of music and mayhem reveals a director at the height of his provocative filmmaking powers.

Two lovers become entwined while both harbouring deep secrets and shame, in this epic postwar romance.