I The Executioner 1968

A man brutally murders a woman after forcing her to write the names of four others. As the murders pile up, the police investigate the links between the victims and how they may be connected to the suicide of a young boy in the same building. Directed by Tai Kato (By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him), a former apprentice of Akira Kurosawa better known for his yakuza films, I, the Executioner is a pitch black neo noir that makes the serial killer the central character. Sensationally photographed with claustrophobic close ups, Kato’s film evokes both Hitchcock’s Psycho and the films of Nagisa Oshima, while also prefiguring the Italian giallo.