Photography: Here's a series of vintage stills from Japanese film noir

The ominously named Project B have but one aim – to rediscover brilliant vintage photographs and reprint them in limited editions so that people can adorn their houses with images which would, otherwise, have lain undiscovered in dusty treasure chests the world over. It’s a lovely idea, isn’t it?

This 1960s collection took my fancy; the images are taken from the popular cinematic genre of yakuza, a kind of film noir which depicted the lives and activities of the Japanese mafia. The stills were hand-coloured in Japan before being exported and shown in cinemas across Thailand. I’m completely hooked by the surreal mixture of comic surprise and sinister fury in the faces of the characters. And the costumes? Who can say no to a trench coat and black fedora combo? Not I.