Be a Guest

Thanks for your interest in being a guest on the show.

I have a list of movies that you can choose from. These are movies I own, but haven’t yet covered on the show. You are not limited to these movies! If you want to discuss something that isn’t on this list, then please let me know and I’ll see if I can get it.

Click here to view the list of available movies.

Please read the guidelines below, these should answer most questions you probably have. The contact form is at the bottom of the page.

What’s the format like?

Episodes run about 60-90 minutes in length. There’s no set format for the episode, we just see where the discussion takes us.

What is the show about?

The focus of the show is not only discussing the movies themselves but also what they say about Japan, Japanese society, Japanese history, Japanese culture, etc. If you don’t have any knowledge about these things, that’s okay, but just go in with the understanding that this is my focus and what I’ll be discussing. If you’ve never listened to the show, then I recommend sampling a few episodes. I suggest starting with episodes from season 3 as that’s when I started having guests on and will give you the best idea of what to expect.

What kind of movies do you cover?

Japanese movies! Any genre, any year. We’ve covered romantic comedies, exploitation horror, family-friendly anime, and everything in between.

My personal preference is for live-action Japanese films. This isn’t anything against anime (we have and will continue to feature anime), but many other podcasts handle those films. For this reason, I’ll limit the amount of anime-focused episodes to only a few per season.

I’ll also consider non-Japanese movies about Japan (for example, 47 Ronin, The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, Black Rain, etc.). But again, the preference is for live-action Japanese-made films.

Please refrain from asking about Japanese TV shows. Unless it’s something that has a short episode count (six or less) or is a TV movie, I’ll probably say no. The reason is that it’s typically a larger investment time to watch an entire TV season as opposed to a single movie and most TV shows will probably need more than one episode to get into.

Who do you want to hear from?

Basically, people who love Japanese movies. If you have some knowledge or experience of Japan, then that’s a bonus. But I’ve never turned away a guest because of a lack of familiarity with Japan.

If you are Japanese, I especially want to hear from you. Please do not worry about your English ability—I’ve had people on the show in the past who speak English as a second language.

I am or represent someone from the Japanese entertainment industry. How do you feel about these guests?

Wonderful! We can either have you on for a regular movie discussion episode, or we could do a special episode. Have a look at the episode we did with director Takeshi Fukunaga for an idea of what I mean.

I want to talk about more than one movie. Is that okay?

Unless I have difficulty finding guests, I like to keep it to one guest per season. If there’s more than one movie you want to talk about, please let me know in the contact form and I can mark you as a backup or for subsequent seasons in the future.

All right, I’m in! What’s next?

Fill out the form below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. If I don’t respond within 48 hours, then try submitting again.

All slots for Season 11 have now been claimed. But if you’d like to be an alternate or if you want to be on Season 12, then please continue to fill out the form below.