Yoshimitsu Morita's long filmography includes everything from art-house hits (The Family Game) to romantic drama (Lost Paradise) by way of porno comedies, but Keiho - literally, 'Penal Code' - is his first ever psychological mystery-thriller. It's less of a journey into existential darkness than some other recent Japanese thrillers; the accent is more on tightly plotted mystery, with long-hidden secrets emerging from patient investigation. Preview audiences in Japan (where it's scheduled for release in May) have been gripped.

Stage actor Masaki Shibata (Shinichi Tsutsumi, star of Sabu's comedy thrillers) has murdered a man and his wife, for no better reason than that the woman, who was five months pregnant, bad-mouthed his one-man show. The case would be open-and-shut if it weren't for the 'diminished responsibility' clause in Japan's criminal law. A police shrink tags Shibata as schizophrenic, but the doctor's assistant &endash; the irresistibly named Kafka Ogawa, played by Kyoka Suzuki, last seen in Welcome Back, Mr McDonald &endash; doesn't buy it. She begins her own researches into Shibata's background, and soon comes up with some disturbing discoveries. Tony Rayns