RZA

“Tsui Hark’s collection, Once Upon a Time in China. Now, this was like the revolutionary vibe of 1990s martial-arts films when Jet Li exploded on the scene... Tsui Hark went and got him and they did three of these movies. And I’m telling you, it was the elevation of martial-arts films. Wo-ping, of course, and his wire work. We don’t get The Matrix if we don’t get this. So this is a must-watch. This is a great one to add to my collection.”

“Mikey and Nicky. I’m talking about Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. You know, when you think of a movie like Midnight Cowboy... You get this buddy energy that the ’70s is bringing to us, but I don’t think no film did it like Mikey and Nicky. I’d never seen this film before. Criterion released it. I suggest this to anyone who’s trying to write a buddy film. This is a master class of that technique.”

“I first got turned onto them by Jim Jarmusch when I was looking for his old films and I found Down by Law. This was one of the films that led me to the Criterion Collection, because I was looking for Jim movies and this came out on it. And then I started just searching that whole section, back when we was able to go to our DVD video stores. But anyway, Down by Law goes in.”

“Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. This film is special to me because this is the first film that I was actually hired as a composer. Without this film I’m not in the film business. So thank you, Jim Jarmusch, for giving me the chance on this film. I went on from here to do… bong. This gotta go in the bag. And this is a Blu-ray edition. The soundtrack is bananas.”

“I’m pulling this one out, once again for selfish reasons. I’ve seen this film ten times, but I’ll watch it over and over again. Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront. The cinematography, the story, the two brothers, the struggle of this movie, the extras, even the extras. This is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Every time I get kind of lost in my writing or lost in my ideas, I could pop this film on and the film energy and the film techniques open up my third eye.”

“La Haine, which means “the hate.” Mathieu Kassovitz film. One of the new pioneers of the French cinema. French cinema has always made their mark. But when La Haine came out, it was like a regeneration of it. So this has to go in your collection as opposed to my collection.”

“The first thing I got to put in my bag is the Bruce Lee collection. I have this already, but you never can have too many of these. The thing about Bruce Lee was that he was one of the first ones, I think, to integrate the cultures. When you look at John Saxon, Jim Kelly, and Bruce Lee and Bolo Yeung in Enter the Dragon, Hollywood has never seen that kind of a diverse cast come together and make a blockbuster. So Bruce Lee pioneered that.”

“I just talked about John Cassavetes and my eyes just kind of went out– I didn’t… See, I don’t have this. Look at that: Five Films, John Cassavetes. See, this is why the Criterion is so special... John Cassavetes goes in my bag.”

“Melvin Van Peebles, his whole collection. Melvin Van Peebles being one of the pioneers of Black cinema, making independent films. He has one called The Three Day Pass, which he filmed in France. And actually one of the techniques he used in that cinematography has been emulated by filmmakers all over the world. Even my boy Spike Lee picked up a few tricks from this.”