Actually, perhaps someone out there could help me trace a particular film? I saw it at least 8 years ago, if not more, but I think it's older than that, though not so old as to have been in B+W. Stupidly, I didn't make a note of the directors name and I can only rememeber the title in French - I think it was called 'La Femme du Tatoueur', which would translate as 'The Tatoueur's Wife/Woman', which won't necessarily help as no searches I've done with those names has brought anything up. The storyline... It's about a man (minor character) obsessed with perfect skin and tatoos, who persuades his girlfriend to have a particular tatoo on her back - has to be done by a specific tatoueur, dragged out of retirement for this one last task, who uses a rather brutal traditional method with a twist. The overall subject of the film could be described as an exploration of pain and pleasure? This ought to be ringing bells for anyone who's seen it. I have memories of very beautiful imagery of snow and snowflakes... but the memory is a strange thing, and I'd really like to see it again. So if anyone knows what I'm talking about and can tell me the directors name and the title, many thanks!

u should see miike's "visitor Q", it's not as rough as audition, but it's a very good movie, some people can'tstand to see until the film finished, but in the end of the film, it gives a great solution.
takeshi kitano's film also worth seeing. i recommend "getting any" and "dolls". but if you found any other films by him, i think they all worth seeing.
there's also a film called "pillow book" by a chinese/hongkong director i think, i kinda forget. but it's a good movie, about a man and a woman, the woman is a body calligrapher artist, she wrote calligraphy on people's body and then photographed the writing.
also there's a thailand movie called "last life in the universe", miike is in the movie as a cameo.

Watch sympathy for mr vengenace and old boy, the third in the trilogy is about to be released. Cinema at its finest.....

Oldboy and Visitor Q are excelent so is "Itchy the killer" another T.Miike,(but "One missed call"-his latest release is disapointing) but not all Asian cinema is so dark and i cant recomend enough "2046" and "In the mood for love" from Wong Kar-Wai. Both beautiful and really origonal. A friend of mine has the movie you were asking about so ill post the name later. If you want to know the most extreme crazy Asian movies ill give you that list later but be warned thats some really dark stuff!

Thanks everyone - and keep it coming please! Dark, beautiful, original, strange and whatever.

I think the only Kitano I've seen so far is 'Zatoichi' - blink as little as possible, strange ending.

I've been hestitating about seeing 'Itchi the Killer' because it looks so gory, but then if I survived 'Gozu' with what's possibly the scariest sex scene in the history of cinema I can perhaps cope with anything...

I think 'Pillow Book' was made by British director Peter Greenaway but hey. Like a lot of Greenaway's films it's a bit dense, but worth watching anyway for a young Ewan Mcgregor in the buff!

Charlie what was that bonkers one that you lent me about 2 and a bit years ago which was visually stunning but a bit nonsensical, it was as if it had a billion pound budget - set in the future etc.

Can you remember?

I would like to recommend some brilliant animes like «Akira» & «Memoires» by Katsuhiro Otomo and «Ghost In The Shell» by Mamoru Oshii. And if you like it really wired you shouldn`t miss «Battle Royale» by Kinji Fukasaku.

Ben- give me a clue, you know ive seen about a million films fitting that description.

I think you should check out Fruit Chan's work called Dumplings....quite dark, but nice DoP...