My Letterboxd Top 4
My Letterboxd Top 4
One of my biggest fears at parties is getting asked what my Letterboxd top 4 is. Whenever I mention that I do film or that I was a film major back in college, one of the first questions that comes up from strangers I meet is exactly that. For those who don't know, Letterboxd is basically a film database where you can log and review movies you watch. The app makes you pick four movies to display on your profile as your "four favorites." In a community full of film lovers, this question can feel like a subtle taste test, and yes, I might be overthinking it.
Here are my current four favorites, in no particular order.
I watched this film for the first time two years ago after seeing Wim Wenders' latest, Perfect Days, and wanting to explore more of his filmography. When it finished, I immediately fell in love. While the story deals with complex subject matter, the film treats its characters with such delicacy, layering them with subtext and context that makes it impossible not to feel compassion for them. I also love it from a cinematography standpoint, as the film uses color theory so beautifully, leaning on greens and reds to tell so much without a single line of dialogue. Cinematographer Robby Müller has an extraordinary eye for composition, and paired with Wenders' minimalist coverage style, every frame is packed with information.
I understand this is a cinephile favorite, and honestly, there are very good reasons for that. This film taught me the importance of capturing emotion over motion, as shaky cameras, slow shutter speeds, unusual angles, and unconventional coverage all carry the unmistakable stamp of Wong Kar-wai. While the storytelling sometimes asks you to suspend logic, this film completely opened my mind to a different way of shooting. I first watched it during film school, and it was a revelation that cinematography can be loose and untethered, as long as it's chasing the feeling.
This is my favorite Ghibli film, and I genuinely wish more people had seen it. I know that's a hot take when Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke are right there, but the reason I love it so deeply is personal because it takes me back to my time in Japan and what the Japanese call seishun, a term referring to youth, the spring of life, and adolescence. This film captures that feeling so precisely that the nostalgia it stirs is something I can only get from this movie, and the soundtrack helps too. It's not rated as highly outside of Japan, partly because it's so culturally specific, but the animation is beautiful and the story is genuinely entertaining. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough because it's a quiet, peaceful film that takes you right back to being young.
Growing up, my parents almost never watched Japanese films as they were devoted Hollywood action blockbuster people, though those movies did eventually inspire me to come to LA for school. When I arrived, I realized I knew almost nothing about Japanese cinema, which was a little embarrassing because friends would ask me about Ozu or Kurosawa as if I'd seen everything, and I had to smile and nod. During COVID, I went back to Japan and made a point of watching more Japanese classics to understand why they're considered classics. Tokyo Story hit me hard both stylistically and emotionally, as it takes something as vast and universal as death and distills it down to a processable, human size. Ozu doesn't dramatize grief but instead just observes people quietly moving through it, and somehow that's more powerful than any dramatic score or sweeping camera move. The static frames he uses are a masterclass in restraint because not every film needs to move like Euphoria to earn your attention, and sometimes the stillest shot says the most. The older you get, the more this film gives you.
So there it is, my list as of 2026. Feel free to judge my taste and leave a comment because choosing only four films out of a lifetime of watching is genuinely brutal, and I'm convinced whoever designed that feature enjoys a little chaos. All jokes aside, I love what these lists reveal about people because it's fascinating how a single film can shape who you are. I'd love to know what movies changed your life, and if any fellow cinephiles want to follow along, here's my Letterboxd account @maybe_miki.