Hideo Kojima

“[Translated] For Japanese films, I'm sure everyone's aware of Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa. The likes of Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. I love High and Low the most. Please watch this. I was so shocked when I saw this, so I'd love for you to watch it. They said I could take this with me. I'll be taking this one, so I'll put this right in here.”

“[Translated] Now, where there's Akira Kurosawa, there's Yasujiro Ozu. A film by Ozu. He did Tokyo Story, but my favorite is Late Spring. It's got the best scene of Setsuko Hara where she's riding a bicycle. It's actually Setsuko Hara's birthday today, which is quite a coincidence. I absolutely love this film.”

“[Translated] So Ozu, Kurosawa, and then... Here, Ugetsu. A film directed by Mizoguchi. Scorsese restored this film, and you can buy that on Blu-ray in Japan. Criterion has it too. Ugetsu. This scared me as a kid. It's got ghosts in it. It's a black-and-white film, but it's a beautiful film, so I'd love for you to watch it.”

“[Translated] And... Yes! They have my favorite. By Masaki Kobayashi. Kwaidan. This one's got ghosts in it too. I was so scared when I watched this as a kid. It's an omnibus film made on a set. It's a bit of an artistic film.”

“[Translated] Another one. This one is Harakiri. In Japanese, it's called Seppuku. This one's really good, so please watch it. The last half of this film sort of inspired the creation of spaghetti Western films. I really like this. That's so cool it's on Blu-ray.”

“[Translated] Next... Yes, here. By Nobuo Nakagawa, a film called Jigoku. There's a film called The Ghost of Yotsuya. It's about the ghost of Oiwa. This movie traumatized me as a kid, but watching it as an adult, I can see it's a really artistic film. It left a completely different impression compared to when I was a kid. That's when I became a fan of Nakagawa and Jigoku. Jigoku is about hell, and it's quite a surreal film. I'd love for you to watch this one too. Yes.”

“[Translated] Next up... Yes, there it is! Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba. Again, I watched this at night as a kid and it shocked me. Kaneto Shindo's wife, Nobuko Otowa, played the role of Onibaba. When I first met Guillermo del Toro, we both got talking about Onibaba. He loves this film too. There's a monster called Onibaba in Pacific Rim, and that comes from this Onibaba. This is really rare. It's not out on Blu-ray in Japan, so I'd love for you to watch this.”

“[Translated] What else do we have? Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes. I'm a fan of Kobo Abe so I watched it after reading the book. The Face of Another is another one that Teshigahara adapted for film. This one's also a really good movie so I'd love for you to watch this one too. It's got Kyoko Kishida in it. It's hard to get a hold of this in Japan these days, so I'd like you to watch the Criterion version of it.”

“[Translated] I love a lot of Ozu's films, but there's another one I don't think many people know of. It's called Tokyo Twilight, or Tokyo Boshoku in Japanese. I recommend this one too. Ozu films are usually very light, but this one is really dark. I really like that about this film, so I highly recommend it.”