What the hell, I need some levity.
#5: Akira [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_%28film%29]
What happens when you give someone with no sense of self worth and no concept of the impact they have on the world literally infinite power? Catastrophe. I seem to be the only person (or at least the only person I know of) of this opinion, but this film is about agency, and that touches me in a very, very deep way. Some of the questions they pose-and the possible answers they present-are as terrifying as they are human.
#4: Waking Life [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_Life]
A meditation on what it means to be real, what it means to be a dream, and what it means to be a human. Kind of dull, but I love the hell out of it.
#3: It's A Wonderful Life [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life]
Too often films about karma focus on the negative consequences of a person's actions. Here we have a film very much about actions and consequences, but instead of showing how bad things lead to more bad things, it shows how good things lead to more good things, and in a very real, very believable way.
#2: Princess Mononoke [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke]
Plenty of people have said plenty of things about this film, and there's plenty that someone can say about it, but I feel this film is a guide for how to be a good person in a world that makes that as difficult as it possibly can. I also consider it to be one of the bravest films I've ever seen; Prince Ashitaka tries to do as much good as he can for as many people as he can, and he repeatedly, catastrophically fails. Sometimes being good isn't enough. Sometimes you can only do the best you can, and have to live with that.
#1: Hero [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_%282002_film%29]
Something my grandfather drilled into my head at a young age was the importance of seeing from as many perspectives as possible. In essence, that's what this film is about; perspective, and the difficulty of sorting between different viewpoints, some very passionate, some very rational, and how sometimes the decision you've convinced yourself is right...isn't. There's also so much depth to this film that I could write an essay about it if I were feeling more cheeky.
