Hideo Kojima visits the Criterion closet, experiences the happiest day of his life

Hideo Kojima once claimed that “70% of my body is made of movies.” The renowned creator of the Metal Gear franchise and Death Stranding, Kojima has never made it a secret how heavily his work is indebted to his love of movies, so it’s no surprise that he paid a visit to the Criterion Collection’s New York headquarters and offered his own closet recommendations.

Recorded in June, Criterion Collection finally released the video of Hideo Kojima’s visit, in which he lists off some of his favorite films he would recommend to younger audiences.

“In this age of subscription services, there’s not all that much available from the ’50s or ’60s, so I’m very grateful to Criterion for their physical collection,” Kojima said before diving in. Kojima’s recommendations centered primarily on films from that period that are difficult to find on Bluray in Japan, enthusiastically recalling his formative moments watching movies and peppering in little fun facts — like his experience bonding with Guillermo Del Toro over their shared love of Kaneto Shindo’s Onibaba. The dude just loves movies — he’s even wearing a sick Throne of Blood shirt!

You can find a list of Kojima’s recommendations below:

1. High and Low — Dir. Akira Kurosawa
2. Late Spring— Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
3. Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu — Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
4. Ugetsu — Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
5. Kwaidan — Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
6. Harakiri — Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
7. Jigoku — Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa
8. Onibaba — Dir. Kaneto Shindo
9. Woman in the Dunes — Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara