Blue hearts, high school dreams, and one unforgettable rock anthem — we’re diving into Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005). The film follows a group of teenage girls in a Japanese high school who form a last-minute band to play the Blue Hearts’ classic “Linda Linda” at their school festival, with a quiet Korean exchange student unexpectedly stepping in as their lead singer.
Mike White is joined by Chance Huskey of GKIDS to talk about the film’s enduring charm, its place in the coming-of-age canon, and GKIDS’s North American release. From Yamashita’s understated style to Doona Bae’s breakout performance, this conversation riffs on the film’s infectious energy, youthful vulnerability, and what makes it resonate almost twenty years later.
We conclude a month of discussing Japanese films with a look at Toshio Matsumoto's 1971 film Demons AKA Shura AKA Pandemonium. The story of the film is part of the fabric of the larger 47 Ronin narrative and is the story of a ronin (Katsuo Nakamura) who is cheated by a geisha and how he carves a bloody path for revenge.
Emily Intravia and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this breathtaking, disturbing film.
We continue our discussion of Japanese films this month by returning to the world of Yoshishige Yoshida and his 1970 film Heroic Purgatory. It's the story of Nakano (Mariko Okada). She returns home with a lost teenager, Ayu (Kazumi Tsutsui). Meanwhile, a man posing as her dad tries to get her back, causing Nanako's husband, Shoda (Naizo Kamoda) to recall his youth as a revolutionary. Like his previous film, Eros plus Massacre, Heroic Purgatory moves with its own logic moving back and forth in time in order to tell its story.
Earl Jackson and Axel Kohagen join Mike to try and parse this dense tale of revolutionaries through the mid- to late-20th century.
We continue Japanese month with a request from listener Vaughn Kuhlemeier, Millennium Actress (2001). Directed by Satoshi Kon, the film tells the story of Chiyoki Fujiwara, an actress who met a fugitive when she was a young lady who spent the rest of her life looking for him. She’s approached by a filmmaker and his cameraman to celebrate the studio she helped make famous. As they learn about her life they enter into her memories and films -- as does the audience. We move seamlessly between fantasy and reality in this beautifully animated film.
El Goro and Professor Earl Jackson join Mike to discuss Kon's work.
We are kicking off a month dedicated to Japanese Film with a look at Hitoshi Matsumoto’s 2013 film R100 . It’s the story of a man (Nao Ômori) who makes a contract with an organization called Bondage. For a year they’ll surprise him with appearances from a variety of dominatrices who will attack and humiliate him at random. When they begin to show up where he works and lives he tries to cancel the contract but finds this impossible.
This was a suggestion from Jim Vendiola who joins Mike along with Samm Deighan to discuss this hilarious film.
We continue our request month with one from Patreon Donor Ludo Round. We’re discussing Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964). Based on a novel by, and adapted by the author Kōbō Abe, the film stars Eiji Okada as teacher and amateur entomologist Niki Jumpei. On a sea-side vacation, he spends the night with the titular Woman played by Kyoko Kishida . In the morning he finds that he is trapped in the pit that holds her home. He’s now expected to help her shovel sand every night in a Sisyphean nightmare.
Beth Accomando and Cullen Gallagher join Mike to discuss another Patreon request, Sonatine. Released in 1993, the film stars Takeshi Kitano as Murakawa, an aging gangster with no real sense of purpose. He's sent to Okinawa on yakuza business where things don’t go as well as they should.
On this special episode Mike speaks with Chie Hayakawa the director of the 2022 film Plan 75. It's a slightly sci-fi look at Japan in ten years and how they handle the elderly.
Mike talks with Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta and guest curator Will Carroll (Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema) and Peter Tatara, the brand-new Director of Film at Japan Society and founder of Anime NYC about the Japan Society's Seijun Suzuki Centennial.
Celebrating 100 years of iconoclast director Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), a singular force in Japanese cinema whose radical stylistic vision and unpredictable narratives shaped the B-movie genre, Japanese cinephilia and the political New Left, Japan Society and The Japan Foundation present Seijun Suzuki Centennial—a selection of six films from across the filmmaker’s nearly 60-film body of work, all on imported 35mm prints straight from Japan. Covering ground from his earliest yakuza feature (Satan’s Town) to his unbridled return to studio filmmaking after being blacklisted for 10 years (A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness) and his subsequent independent success (Kagero-za), this special series offers a rare glimpse into the core of Suzuki's creative genius.
Mike spoke with Alexander Fee of the Japan Society New York about the Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors series that runs December 3-23, 2021.
The series takes an intimate look at six of Japan’s most well-known directors: Naomi Kawase, Miwa Nishikawa, Shuichi Okita, Junji Sakamoto, Akihiko Shiota and Masayuki Suo. Pairing each debut with a recent work, the series presents two distinct facets of each filmmaker’s career—encouraging dialogue and interplay as well as tracking the development of their signature voice. By drawing parallels and contrasts between past and present, Flash Forward illuminates the importance of these pivotal early works within each artist’s career.
Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at Teruo Ishii's Horrors of Malformed Men. Based on the writings of Edogawa Rampo, the movie tells the tale of Hirosuke Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) who we first see locked up in an insane asylum. Things only go downhill from there...
I was recently asked to be part of "Samurai September" over at Kulture Shocked. Chris Stachiw looked at three classic Samurai films including two that I had never seen:
Chris Stachiw from Kulture Shocked allowed Mike to program a month of shows for The Kulturecast. And thus, "Mike White March" was born. The theme Mike chose was Japanese New Wave with a quartet of films that exemplify what the vanguard of the Japanese New Wave film "movement".
Special Guest: Marc Walkow Guest Co-Hosts: Geoff Todd, Axel Kohagen
The Lone Wolf & Cub Films (also known as the Babycart Films, the Kozure Okami Films, the Shogun Assassin series and more) are six movies released from 1972-1974 starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto, the Shogun's decapitator. After he's framed by the villainous Yagyu clan, he travels the countryside with his young son in a tricked-out baby cart as an assassin and son for hire. Adapted from the manga by author Kazuo Koike, the films are both gorgeously contemplative and gory bloodbaths.
Geoff Todd and Axel Kohagen join Mike to discuss the original manga, the television adaptations, the 1989 follow-up film, the 1992 reboot, and a handful of influences that the films have had on American popular culture.
Special Guests: David Desser & Linda Hoaglund Guest Co-Host: Miguel Rodriguez
Cruel Story of Youth (AKA Naked Youth, Seishun Zankoku Monogatari, and 青春残酷物語) is a 1960 film from Nagisa Oshima at the forefront of the Japanese New Wave cinema movement. The film tells the tale of two youths who fall in love -- or lust, at least -- against the backdrop of the ANPO protests.
We're joined by Miguel Rodriguez of the Horrible Imaginings film festival to discuss this groundbreaking film.
Special Guest: Jerry Chandler Guest Co-Host: Coffin Jon
This week we're looking at Naosuke Kurosawa's 1980 Japanese Roman Porno film Zoom In: Sex Apartments (AKA Zoom In: Rape Apartments/Zûmu in: Bôkô danchi). The film tells the tale of a young married woman (Erina Miyai) who gets raped on the way to visit an old flame. The assault appears to be a part of a series of similar rapes and gruesome murders taking place in an apartment block. The film is visually striking and seems inspired by Dario Argento's 1970s giallo films.
We're joined once again by VCinema's Coffin Jon to talk about pinku eiga, roman porno, and more.
Special Guests: Stuart Galbraith IV & Peter H. Brothers
Mothra, one of a long line of kaiju (giant monster) films from Japan. This one deals with nuclear testing, religion, primitive cultures, and a big friggin' moth.
Shuji Terayama's Pastoral - To Die In Country / Den-en ni shisu / 田園に死す is the eclectic filmmaker's second feature film. It's the story of a filmmaker telling the tale of his young life and revising it on the fly in a highly stylized, artful work that should not be missed.
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I was recently asked to be part of "Samurai September" over at 
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Guest Co-Hosts: Coffin Jon, Bill Fulkerson
Special Guests: Stuart Galbraith IV & Peter H. Brothers
Special Guest: Steven C. Ridgely