Winner of the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay at Cannes, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intricately structured drama delves into the fragility of boyhood. Bookended by fires and storms, delicate feelings of anger, confusion, and love swell through an exquisite final score from the late maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Following the explosive 13 Assassins, the iconoclastic Takashi Miike revisited the samurai genre with this underrated remake of the 1962 classic Harakiri. Scored by the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto, Death of a Samurai is an elegant reckoning with notions of sacrifice and duty in the 17th century.

Before winning the Palm D’Or with Shoplifters, Hirokazu Koreeda directed this crime thriller filled with nuance and complexity. Defying genre conventions, its whodunit aspect quickly makes room for a deeper exploration of truth, memory and the power of stories that we tell ourselves and others.