Branded to Kill

The film that got Seijun Suzuki fired from Nikkatsu for making movies nobody could understand, and he was arguably right to. A ranked contract killer with a fetish for the smell of boiled rice botches a hit and becomes the target of the mysterious Number One killer, and the film dissolves into surreal, fragmented delirium.

It baffled audiences and executives in 1967 and became a touchstone for Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook and others decades later. It is a yakuza film that has essentially come apart on purpose, and it is mesmerising.

A genuine avant-garde landmark disguised as a hitman picture.