Perhaps the most clearly defined characteristic of the British media’s approach to cinema is its parochialism. One only needs to look at the media’s coverage of the biggest World Cinema event in the cinematic calendar, Cannes, to understand its approach. The majority of the coverage concerns the number of British films in Cannes and how they will fair in competition.

The Director: Park Chan-wook is possibly the most famous South Korean director in the world, even more popular on the world stage than Kim Ki-Duk, Kim Ji-woon or Bong Joon-ho (although the latter is close to over taking him).

Park Chan Wook's latest film Thirst (Bakjwi) is an excellent subversion and contortion of the vampire genre. This episode features an extended look back at the career of South Korea's most famous director.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Iris Chang wrote in her book The Rape of Nanking: “…if the dead from Nanking were to link hands, they would stretch from Nanking to the city of Hangchow, spanning a distance of some two hundred miles. Their blood would weigh twelve hundred tons, and their bodies would fill twenty-five railroad cars.

Chuan Lu's City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!) is easily the most brutal, gut wrenching and disturbing war movie in recent years, cataloging the infamous Rape of Nanking in stunning monochrome and with relentless realism.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Nobody Knows is the most widely seen of Hirokazu Koreeda’s films, a possible reason for this is its dramatic premise: Children in Jeopardy. This premise is almost always guaranteed to peak wider interest, David Simon credited the success of The Wire’s fourth season to this factor especially amongst American audiences.

Continuing Left Field Cinema's exploration of the work of the great Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, this episode explores one of his best films to date, a tragic drama centered around the abandonment of four children to fend for themselves in modern Japan.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson. Additions written by Wilson McLachlan.

The Director: Hayao Miyazaki was born in 1941, his father was a director of Miyazaki Airplane. This has been suggested as the foremost influence on the young Miyazaki and his subsequent well known love of flight within film. No other director in the history of cinema has ever exploited the swooping majesty of flight like the great Japanese animator, it is interesting to consider what profound influence both World War II and this love of aeroplane’s had on his resultant career.

Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) is easily the best animated feature film of the last decade. Miyazaki drops us into a world we don't understand and lets us work out the rules of this world as we go along.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson. Additional writing by Wilson McLachlan. Quotations read by Lara Bradban.

Thailand may not have the same weight behind its cinematic output as Japan, Hong Kong, or more recently South Korea, but this is something that director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is looking to correct. Thai cinema has a long history of filmmaking but by 1997 it was only producing 10 Studio films per year, however a number of directors coalesced in Thailand to change this.