Voluptuous special agent Iron Pussy was invented by Thai-American performance artist Michael Shaowanasai, who played her himself in a series of short films. In 2003 he teamed up with Apichatpong to give Iron Pussy a starring role in her own feature. And here it is, the tale of Iron Pussy going undercover as a housemaid to bust a drug-smuggling ring – and exposing the treachery and sexual depravity of the ruling class along the way.

Apichatpong’s idea was to turn the whole thing into an elaborate homage to a vanished era of Thai pop culture, with a torrent of musical, religious and action cliches and the odd little jab of political satire thrown in. Like Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger, it’s an accurate and affectionate pastiche of old genre movies. But the central presence of Iron Pussy makes it one of a kind, though it could probably be filed alongside Gus van Sant’s remake of Psycho as an art-object.