When Aki first asked to write about me, he wanted to understand me better. So, he asked me the only question his small mind could think to ask: What are my favorite movies.

How do you even answer that? Well, lengthily. I started listing movies I loved. He was writing them down. When I got to around 90, he told me to fill it out to a round hundred and here we are.

Here’s the list:

Too cute

Falling Leaves
Nostalgia for the Light
Grave of Fireflies
My Neighbor Totoro
Wings of Desire
In the Mood for Love
Nana

Misery porn

Soy Cuba
The Ascent
Ugetsu Monogatari
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
Satantango
Sunset Blvd.
Cleo from 5 to 7
It’s Such a Beautiful Day
Festen
The House Is Black
The Straight Story
Rashomon
Shock Corridor
Greed

Very dark, dry or absurd comedy

Taxidermia
Conspirators of Pleasure
Berberian Sound Studio
Four Lions
Land Without Bread
R100
Underground
Hausu
Songs from the Second Floor
November
The Milky Way
Meet the Feebles
Diary of a Country Priest
Nina Forever
The Love Witch
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats
Gremlins 2
Society
Dogtooth
Tokyo Gore Police
Day of the Beast
Dr. Caligari
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Music & Musical

West Indies
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Sound of Noise
Singin’ in the Rain
Anna and the Apocalypse
Allegro non troppo
Head
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary

Queer stories

The Watermelon Woman
Paris Is Burning
Je, tu, il, elle
I Saw the TV Glow
The People’s Joker
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Daisies
Orlando
The Matrix
Persona
Moonlight
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Mädchen in Uniform
Funeral Procession of Roses
Female Trouble

Avant-garde

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
The Exterminating Angel
Begotten
Idiots and Angels
Scorpio Rising
Dreams
L’hypothèse du tableau volé
Teorema
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Belladonna of Sadness
Paprika
Häxan
The Saragossa Manuscript
The Color of Pomegranates
Johnny Got His Gun
Enter the Void
The Pillow Book
Daughters of the Dust

Elevated and undignified horror

Nosferatu
Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me
May
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
You Won’t Be Alone
The Substance
The Fits
Le Corbeau
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Requiem for a Vampire
Onibaba

Cool movies that don’t really fit under any of the other categories

Polite Society
Immoral Tales
The Sword of Doom
Battle of Algiers