Artist in Person

(Yume no ginga). Ishii adapted a 1930s thriller by cult Japanese fantasist Kyusaku Yumeno for this chilled, chilling look at irrational love, fleshing out the author's theme of young women attracted to danger with enough Freudian imagery to haunt a thousand dreams. Tomiko is a conductor on a rural bus line, well pressed into her buttoned-down uniform but secretly hoping for excitement and romance. Her wishes come true with the arrival of handsome, brooding bus driver Niitaka (Tadanobu Asano, looking dreamier than ever) with blood on his hands, that of his fiancée, Tomiko's friend, killed in a crash. With rumors also circulating of a mysterious driver who murders female conductors, Tomiko begins to suspect Niitaka; perversely, as her suspicions grow stronger, so does her attraction. A beautiful monochrome nightmare, Labyrinth of Dreams creates what its title implies: a maze of enigmas and unsettling visions, well linked by Hiroyuki Onagawa's sinister, hypnotic score.