Interview: Nobuhiro Yamashita reflects on ‘Linda Linda Linda’ 20 years later

Unassuming yet packed with the vibrancy of youth, director Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year with a new remaster in 4K. Starring Korean actress Doona Bae (Broker, The Host, Take Care of My Cat), the film follows a high school girl band who loses their main vocalist due to a falling out. Scrambling to pull together a performance for their high school’s annual bunkasai (school cultural festival), they hastily recruit Korean exchange student Son (Bae) as their new vocalist. 

 

With few dramatic twists and turns, Linda Linda Linda has been described as ‘mellow’ and ‘reserved’, setting it apart from a dearth of more explosive Japanese high school and coming of age films. Its roots lie more in the Japanese slice of life genre, focusing on the mundane everyday and purity of the moment. Perhaps, this is why it has remained such a cult hit, with audiences outside Japan who relate to the universal charm of playing music for the pure love of it, and gaining a new generation of audience twenty years on. 

Following sold out sessions at the Asian Film Archive and an announcement of encore screenings later in the year, AFA’s Natalie Ng got to chat with director Nobuhiro Yamashita to reflect on Linda Linda Linda’s enduring popularity twenty years on. 

 

Congratulations on an amazing 2024 with multiple films released including Karaoke Iko! and Ghost Cat Anzu, and now in 2025 with Linda Linda Linda celebrating its 20th anniversary. How does it feel talking about two films you made recently and then reflecting 20 years ago when you made Linda Linda Linda?

With Linda Linda Linda celebrating its 20th anniversary and remastered, I’ve definitely been reflecting about being a director for the last twenty-five years. It’s been an interesting turning point in my career, talking about all my past films in the last few years. 

 

 

Linda Linda Linda, Lalala at Rock Bottom and Karaoke Iko! have a focus on music. Are you particularly drawn to films with music as a subject, and did making Linda Linda Linda influence you with making the other two films? 

I do think it’s exactly that. I think after working on Linda Linda Linda, films like Lalala at Rock Bottom and Karaoke Iko! fell into my lap. It’s not like I have a background in music or I’m a musician or extremely passionate about music, but I think that after Linda Linda Linda it was thought that oh, he’s a director who can handle the stories revolving around music. I respect and love music but I wouldn’t consider myself a director specialising in music.

 

I read that producer Hiroyuki Negishi brought the script to you. What made you interested in making Linda Linda Linda? Was it the characters or story or something else?

When producer Negishi brought the script to me, the original script was about an all-girl band doing a cover of The Blue Hearts. But it was more about them participating in a contest, and it was about a success story as a band. I was not very into this storyline, but producer Negishi gave me the opportunity to develop this story together, and that’s how I got into it.

 

I also read in that same interview that the original script for Linda Linda Linda was more purely entertainment, but you eventually made quite a lot of changes to it. Can you talk about what are some of the changes you made from the script to the final film?

The biggest change was about using music to become a success story. I didn’t think music should have an element of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’. I really wanted just the purity of performing music. So that’s why instead of a contest, I changed it to a school festival performance. Originally between the characters, there was a lot of drama. There were love stories and love triangles and such. It was a lot more splashy, with all the drama, so I completely changed that in the story to just being about girls being friends and staying up late to practice for a performance. 

 

 

The simple story of just being with friends and playing music is also why I think the film is so well-loved. But I would like to ask for your thoughts on why you think that 20 years later, Linda Linda Linda has remained so beloved? Today, there are adults revisiting the film, but also many young people who were not even born when the movie first came out in 2005 discovering it for the first time.

I really think it’s because I didn’t add anything splashy to the story. All the dramatic pizzaz moments, I took it out from the original script, and it is really a film that focuses on what being a teenager is really like. It’s about teenage life, and the purity of those moments of youth that the audience will be able to relate to. If it had all those dramatics, it would be a different story with a completely different feeling to what the film eventually turned out to be. 

 

I saw that all the cast members reunited for the 20th anniversary screening in Japan, and Kenichi Matsuyama and Bae Doona even recreated the confession scene in the film—how was it like meeting and talking to your cast 20 years later?

It was like a real reunion. After we made Linda Linda Linda, everyone went their separate ways, we didn’t have a lot of contact with one another. Looking at everyone twenty years later, everyone has grown up very elegantly, and I really felt like a school teacher, going back to a school reunion and seeing my students all grown up. 

 

 

How did you come to cast Bae Doona in the film? Twenty years on, she is now an international star who has worked all over the world. What was it like for her as the only Korean person in an all-Japanese film production? 

I think not knowing Japanese and coming into a Japanese film production, it was probably pretty stressful for [Bae Doona]. But even then, she was very mindful as a professional actress. If I gave her any notes, she would listen well and think about it carefully. She was very strict with herself, so now that I see her being active all over the world, and even in Hollywood, it is really easy to understand why she would be able to accomplish that. She was a very strong person. 

And the reason why we came to offer her a role in this film was purely because I was a fan of hers.

 

Which films did you see her in that you became a fan of hers?

I’m not very sure about the English title—I think it is called Barking Dogs Don’t Bite? I saw her in that movie and fell in love with her.

 

 

In Singapore, the screenings of Linda Linda Linda have all sold out which we are very excited about! We gave out guitar picks designed by our local distributor, Anticipate Pictures and invited a music shop to do a pop up at our theatre. Can you say a few words for the audiences in Singapore?

This film I made twenty years ago—I was young back then, the cast was young back then, and even the crew! But I really felt like it depicts everyone’s youth from the cast and crew to myself. I’m really happy that everyone will be able to see it again, or see it for the first time. But also as a film that’s about music, I feel that it shows the power of music, and how it goes out to the world and transcends language and countries. It is able to touch everybody. And then that leads into the power of film, and what the power of film can do. I really think this film is best watched on a big screen with an audience, and if everyone could watch it on a big screen, that would be wonderful.

 

 

Do you have any interesting memories of shooting Linda Linda Linda and do you have a favourite scene from the film? 

I was so young back then! I was so anxious and nervous filming then that I don’t remember much during the filming process. There’s a dialogue in the film that goes something like how you don’t often really remember when you’re in the moment, because you’re just so into it. But I do remember after shooting, when I returned back to Tokyo, I felt really lonely. I went back home, and I thought to myself, “Oh, I’m all alone.” I think it’s because during the production, being with everyone, from the cast to the crew, it was all so fun. 

 

 

About the favourite scene—you know how there’s a scene at night, where the girls are in their club room and they are practicing performing “My Right Hand”. The camera is on the outside taking the shot of them just practicing. I really love that shot and that scene because the girls look like they’re in their own world, in their own time, in the moment. And you as the audience, you’re sort of peeking in to watch them. That is really my favourite scene. 

 

You’ve said before that you love trying new things and genres—are you working on anything that you can talk about, or what kind of film would you like to make in the future?

I’m working on two films right now, and they’re both based on manga, and they’re both about youth. Hopefully we can start shooting next year. I’m in my fifties now, so in the future, I would really love to work on something that reflects my generation. 

 

Many thanks to Satsuki Yamashita for interpreting this interview.