Japanese cinema has been shocking audiences with horrifying efficiency since long before Anna Friel snogged another girl in Brookside (remember the fuss over that?).

Red Angel, the 1966 classic directed by Yasuzo Masumura, is set during the Sino-Japanese war of 1939 and tells the story of a young military nurse who is raped by her patients and sent to the front line for daring to complain. Assigned to a demoralised unit, she falls in love with an impotent morphine-addicted surgeon and…seriously, is that not engrossing enough for you?

Why do these Japanese films have blurbs that are more exciting than an entire Hollywood movie? – read more.