Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2012

Buckets of blood will be spilled (on screen at least) as Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com) runs an all-night marathon of splatter films by movie madman Noboru Iguchi on March 10, kicking off with a Q&A with the man himself at 10:15pm. The director got his start making AV before moving on to over-the-top horror films such as Machine Gun Girl (2007; pictured).

In what is certain to touch a nerve with viewers in Japan, Prypiat, a black-and-white documentary about a ghost town 4km from Chernobyl, is screening at Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) from March 3. Filmed 12 years after the disaster, the doc features interviews with evacuated residents who still have fond memories of the town.

A selection of the best of American independent cinema is playing at Cinema Vera (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku ; www.cinemavera.com) through March 16. The lineup includes Sid and Nancy (1986), Ghost World (2001), Lost in Translation (2003) and Broken Flowers (2005).