The three Japan Times film critics (Mark Schilling, Giovanni Fazio and me, Kaori Shoji) are taking a much-needed and entirely fictional break in a log cabin in a remote location, with no entertainment except for five DVDs. (Personally, I would rather have camped out at a 24-hour cocktail lounge in my pajamas, but never mind.) But how to choose just five movies for the holidays? Narrowly avoiding bloodshed, we thrashed out a list — and this is how we got there.

M.S.: “I would have to say that this time of year, my thoughts turn to ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I watched it every year when I was a kid, and then I cried. I know every single scene, I can repeat lines verbatim.”

G.F.: “Which scene made you cry?”

M.S.: “When Toto runs away from Dorothy. It’s like turning on a faucet.”

G.F.: “In the light of this year’s events, I’d like to recommend a Finnish documentary called “Into Eternity,” about storage of spent nuclear fuel.

K.S.: “I want to go a different route — to rom-coms! How about the worst Jennifer Aniston movie to be released this year. Or something with Ashton Kutcher in it. Something really ‘Aargh.’ “

G.F.: “Well, what’s the best one you’ve seen this year?”

K.S.: “Probably ‘Love and Other Drugs,’ though it’s not out on DVD yet. That was so goofy, so all-over the place, it was actually lovable.”

G.F. and M.S.: “Uh-huh …”

G.F.: “If I had to choose just one DVD from all time, it would probably be (stylish 1981 French thriller) ‘Diva.’ I love everything about that film, though I can’t say exactly why. I kept going back to the theater to watch it. It’s the one that got me into filmmaking, and films in general.”

K.S.: “(Actress) Rie Miyazawa once told me that was her favorite film too.”

G.F.: “Well, that’s something I have in common with Rie Miyazawa!”

M.S.: “With Japanese films, I would have to recommend ‘Tenten (Adrift in Tokyo).’ It’s about a permanent college student (Joe Odagiri) drafted into a walk across Tokyo by an irascible debt collector (Tomokazu Miura). Great, quirky story, and it’s a great guide to the city as well.”

K.S.: “For a wonderful and sober love story, I’d like to put ‘A Serious Man’ in there.”

G.F.: “Yeah, that was a great one by the Coen Brothers. For two hours they lead you down a certain path and then they really spring the ending on you. I just never saw that coming. The Coen Brothers are really, really mean. But is that a love story?”

K.S.: “Yes, because it boils down to one man trying his utmost to please a woman. And he hardly knew her.”

G.F.: “The one sunbathing in her backyard, right?”

K.S.: “Right. Now that’s romantic, wouldn’t you say?”

G.F.: “What’s the one film you can see again and again?”

M.S.: “I would have to say Kubrick’s ’2001: A Space Odyssey.” I first saw it at a Saturday matinee in Barberton, Ohio. The theater was packed with kids, and after 10 minutes they were running up and down the aisles. And I sat there thinking, ‘Am I going to sit through this?’ But I did, forgetting all about the flying popcorn, and the movie has stayed with me ever since.”

G.F.: “For me, the one that I see whenever I’m in a bad mood is ‘The Big Lebowski.’ I just put it on and it picks me up immediately. Jeff Bridges is so great in that one.”

K.S.: “The one I want to see fairly often is probably the first ‘Harry Potter.’ “

G.F.: “Why? What’s your favorite scene?”

K.S.: “When Harry’s standing on the train platform. That scene was really endearing to me. Makes me feel like I’m traveling.”

M.S.: “I think we have five picks now.”

G.F.: “Yeah, we’re covered to hole up in a log cabin for two weeks with nothing else to do and nowhere to go.”

K.S.: “I hate to be the party pooper, but we’d still have to hit our deadlines.”

G.F. and M.S.: “…”

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