If you like 80s pop culture, I recommend Ready Player One. I know the book it's based on is a bit... divisive, but the movie streamlines the story a bit and makes the challenges more interesting.

If you like anime movies, I suggest Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and When Marnie Was There. The beautifully surreal Paprika and heartwarming Summer Wars are also worth a look.

Yeah, no Silent Voice, Your Name, Eva, or Miyazaki here (although definitely watch those if you haven't).

What I will recommend is the slightly-less well known you'd-swear-it's-Ghibli-but-it-isn't film, The Boy and the Beast. It's a charming coming-of-age story about a boy who runs away from home and lives with a bad-tempered-but-well-meaning bear in a kingdom of animals. It's adorable, heart-warming, and tear-jerking to watch our to protagonists grow together as they develop into truly admirable people. But what you expect from the director of Wolf Children? I truly can't recommend it enough.

For you film historians, I can suggest The Hidden Fortress, an adventure film and period drama that heavily influenced both the plot and narrativr structure of Star Wars. A lot of people like it, but I could never get into it.

Although, there is a non-Japanese Star Wars influence that I do entirely recommend: The 1927 silent film Wings. It's about World War 1 pilots, and is as grim as you'd expect in some ways, although it runs the gamut in terms of themes. For years, it was the yardstick by which all other films about planes were measured, and it is notable for its impressive (for the time) aerial combat shots (which are where it influenced Star Wars). But even on a plotting level this film impresses—It wasn't the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture for nothing. It's resonant and memorable, and utterly captivating, even to the fidgety child with a short attention span I was when I first saw it. If you ever get a chance to see this film, take it. And if you ever get a chance to watch it with live instrumentation (as intended), definitely take it. The same applies to Metropolis or A Trip to the Moon, but those films are better known—especially a trip to the the Moon because everyone's seen Hugo, right? Go watch Hugo if you haven't.

Returning to Japan, we have the Zatoichi series. Which... you have probably never heard of if you don't live in Japan. I hadn't. Basically, it turns out that Japan has its own James Bond equivalent (in terms of iconic status, legacy, and sheer number of films). And he's a blind swordmaster who's also a master Shogi player, professional masseur, archer, and... basically, he's ludicrously competent. You get the idea. Between 1962 and 1989, he was featured in no less than 26 films, in which he wandered around Edo-period Japan being awesome, fighting people, and just generally... thwarting, while making women fall in love with him so he can ignore their propositions and return to the road on time for the next adventure. Because it's that kind of film series.

Look, it's not exactly high art, but it's a lot of fun. Well, the first one was. I can't vouch for the rest personally.

And since we're on the subject of Samurai films, you can also go watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon if you haven't yet. But you probably have.

Yes, I know, CTHD isn't a Samurai movie, and it's not set in Japan, but it is good, and so I remembered it.

If we're talking traditional nerd, I remember really liking Reign Of Fire. It's a very silly film with a kind of ropey script, but it's worth it for the fact that some of the main characters retell Star Wars as a bedtime play for children in a post-apocalyptic landscape ravaged by gigantic fire-breathing dragons. I have made absolutely none of that up.

If we're talking film nerd, well... film nerds have probably seen more interesting films than I have. The best I can do is the delirious, powerful, spellbinding film-about-film Holy Motors. Leos Carax is the best director most people have never heard of and this is probably my favourite of his works.

I'd also recommend the Living trilogy by Swedish virtuoso director Roy Andersson. If Carax is the best director you've never heard of, Andersson is the best comedy director you've never heard of. They're not always easy watches, and it conforms to certain slow-cinema traditions, but the three films are beautiful pitch-dark comedies about humanity and the world we built for ourselves. Stories From The Second Floor is sometimes a little heavy going, but You, The Living and A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting Upon Existence are more watchable and hilarious in that very bleak way I love.

For those that don't know Highlander is a 1986 starting Chris Lambert, Sean Connery and Clancy Brown (or Raiden, James Bond and Mr. Krabs if you prefer). It's about a group of immortals who can only be killed if another immortal takes their head in a duel. Immortals have been fighting for centuries waiting for the time of the Gathering where the last immortals will duke it out and claim the Prize and become all powerful. The story is centered on the titular Highlander Connor MacLeod (Lambert) and the story constantly switches between the modern day (or as modern as 86 can get) and Connor's life in the highlands.

It's a great popcorn flick that features terrible fake accents, bad fight choreography that still somehow captures the imagination, Sean Connery pretending to be an Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard pretending to not be a Scotsman, a rocking soundtrack by Queen and Clancy Brown in one of his most entertaining and terrifying roles.

Also of note are the infamous sequels. Never before has a franchise been this botched. I would actually reccomend Highlander 2: The Quickening just so you can see the resulting trainwreck. Try to track down the original version. They're harder to find but the 'fixed' versions remove some particularly hilarious plot details. What sort of details? Well I'll just say that Sean Connery was also pretending to be an alien.