Bonus Perspectives: Zelenskyy on Lex Fridman Podcast, Niigata Prefecture, Stanley Kubrick's Early Works, and Wham!
Ukraine's president appears on a major podcast, my trip to an underrated region of Japan, and your weekly media recommendations.
Bonus Perspectives is a weekly column series containing my thoughts on the latest international news and Japanese news, as well as film, television, music, book, and video game recommendations. It’s free for all subscribers to this Substack, but if you enjoy my writing, consider opting for a paid subscription. Doing so will give you access to exclusive in-depth pieces and my entire backlog of work. Your support is greatly appreciated!
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My trip to Niigata, another underrated part of Japan

Welcome to the first Bonus Perspectives column of 2025! It’s good to be back and I’m excited to continue this series. Over the holiday break I went on an extended vacation with my wife throughout eastern Japan. While I normally use this space to cover some interesting developments in Japanese news, there isn’t much for me to talk about this week.
The two most notable stories at the moment are probably the controversy around the Biden administration blocking Nippon Steel Corp.’s acquisition of U.S. Steel and President-elect Donald Trump seemingly giving Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba the cold shoulder ahead of inauguration. The former is something I have little to comment on as it’s outside of my area of expertise, while for the latter I would prefer to write a more thorough analysis on the state of Japan-U.S. relations after Trump comes back to the White House. There will be plenty to talk about then, I’m sure.
Instead, I thought I’d focus on something more interesting for the time being — my voyage through Niigata Prefecture. With so much of Japan dealing with crowds of tourists around the holidays, I decided to travel to some lesser-known destinations off the beaten path. Subscribers to Foreign Perspectives will remember that I previously wrote about Yokosuka and Yamaguchi Prefecture, while I’m currently in the process of finishing that column mini-series with a third part set to be published later this month. I’ve always had an interest in going to underrated parts of Japan, so this trip to Niigata was no exception.
We actually started the initial leg of the trip back in Yokosuka, meaning that it was my second time there in 2024. I took my wife to some spots I previously wanted to see, but didn’t get to like the tomb of William Adams and a monument dedicated to Commodore Matthew C. Perry. We had planned to go to some locations in Yokohama, but ended up not having enough time. So yes, I anticipate going back to that region yet again at some point in the future. After spending Christmas in Yokosuka, we boarded the Shinkansen for Niigata and spent the latter half of our holiday there.
The first destination was a small town named Joetsu located in western Niigata. Original two separate towns named Naoetsu and Takada, both merged into Joetsu in 1954. It became even larger in 2005 after taking in several surrounding towns and villages, but the overall location appears to be quite obscure even for most Japanese people. There was nary a foreign face to be found during our short stay (apart from yours truly of course) and that was a recurring theme with Niigata as a whole. You’re unlikely to encounter many tourists for miles, which means most places worth visiting are free from large crowds.
It was unfortunately very rainy and windy when we arrived in Joetsu, so most of our activities were limited to indoor locations. Joetsu Aquarium Umigatari was one of them, being situated near the Sea of Japan. It features a nice selection of aquatic creatures, surprisingly tasty food, and is overall a pretty nice way to kill an afternoon. Shortly afterward we also went to the Naoetsu Peace Park, which is built on the remains of a POW camp that housed mostly Australian soldiers during World War II. The overlooked topic of Japan-Australian relations and their decades of reconciliation after the war is worthy of its own article, so I intend to dive into it further someday. Hopefully after I visit its counterpart site in Cowra, Australia.

After Joetsu, we moved on to Sado Island. I last visited this place back in 2017 with the purpose of meeting a very fascinating individual named Charles Robert Jenkins, so I recommend reading about my experience here. That, however, was during the summer and Sado is very different during the winter. Kyoto doesn’t get much snow, so being able to experience it throughout our time in Niigata was quite wonderful indeed. Sado, like the rest of the prefecture, is famous for seafood, rice, and sake. We had some delicious meals and took home plenty of souvenirs for friends and family.
One famous highlight is the Sado Island Gold Mines, a fascinating spot that provides insights into the ore and precious metals which were once vital to the island’s economy. The Kitazawa Flotation Plant Ruins nearby are a leftover of Sado’s mining industry, while the adjacent small town overlooking the sea provided some exquisite photos. Sado seems to have undergone considerable development compared to the last time I was there. New cafes, fast food restaurants, electronic stores, and even a Book Off could be found throughout. If you can, try to get a rental car to make navigating the island easier. Otherwise you’ll have to rely on buses that only operate during specific times or expensive taxis. Hopefully when we come back one day I’ll have my Japanese driver’s license.

We concluded our trip in Niigata City proper, which is considerably smaller than Kyoto or Osaka, but quite convenient with a plethora of restaurants and shops. This portion was more or less a time to unwind as the majority of places were closed during the New Year’s period. One of the few places open was the Senbei Kingdom, a factory outside of the city which produces the region’s famous rice crackers. We ended up making our own with unique designs drawn in soy sauce. As you can tell, I have a clear knack for drawing Kirby and should definitely consider an art career.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of Ukraine’s president on Lex Fridman’s podcast
Plenty of things are happening in the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s inauguration and among the most pressing foreign policy issues remains Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which is about to reach the end of its third year. Trump previously boasted that he could end the war “in 24 hours” upon entering the White House, but the president-elect has unsurprisingly revised that to a six-month timeline. Regardless of what does happen, it’s abundantly clear that the path forward will be anything but straightforward or wholly satisfactory for any side.
I was reminded of these realities while watching Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast, which as of this writing has over 4.5 million views. It says a lot about the modern state of technology and information dissemination when the leader of a country involved in one of the most consequential wars of the 21st century can sit down for an unfiltered three-hour conversation. Yet while undoubtedly a fascinating and possibly even historically important moment, the overall podcast ironically revealed more about the host than it did Ukraine’s president.
Controversy arose before the microphones were even switched on. Fridman initially proposed to conduct the entire conversation in Russian since it’s the only language both he and Zelenskyy speak fluently. Ukraine’s president, however, was not open to this idea because of how politically and culturally contentious Russian has become in his country. Millions of Ukrainians, including those who speak Russian as their first tongue, are currently in the process of attempting to shed the “language of the oppressor” in favor of the Ukrainian language, which is completely understandable considering the last three years and overall history of cultural suppression.
Fridman, of course, is entirely aware of this. While it may seem like a minor issue to those less familiar with Russian and Ukrainian history, Zelenskyy is fully justified to be wary of speaking Putin’s language amid Putin’s invasion. The final podcast ended up being an odd mix of Fridman asking questions in Russian and English with Zelenskyy responding mostly in Ukrainian, but a few moments of Russian and English interspersed. With podcasts being an aural medium, Fridman turned to Elevenlabs to translate and dub their entire conversation purely into Russian, English, and Ukrainian each via AI. The YouTube upload features these three audio tracks, with the fourth being the original mixed audio with English subtitles.
The majority of viewers will probably listen to the dubbed AI English track, but I took the time to seriously watch the entire conversation in its original form. AI cannot convey the same emotions of a real human being and seeing how Zelenskyy reacts, at times with exasperation, to Fridman’s naive questions added even more context to the discussion. Zelenskyy choosing when to switch to Russian and English also illustrates when he wished to directly speak to Fridman without the delay of an interpreter for important points. I know that it’s asking a lot of most people to dedicated their entire focus on a three-hour podcast, but if you care about these issues as much as I do, it’s time well-spent.
Another major issue around language is translation. Fridman claims that the interpreters did a poor job conveying the nuance of both sides, but observers on social media immediately noticed his own translation of the English subtitles did not properly capture what Zelenskyy was trying to say either. Was this an intentionally malicious move on this part? I’m more inclined to believe it was more due to the pitfalls of relying on AI for translation. In his closing notes, Fridman states that the translation was “done in part by AI and a lot by human,” but as I speak neither Russian nor Ukrainian, it’s impossible for me to know how accurate the English subtitles are. While I feel vindicated with my article which went over the pitfalls of using AI for translation, I’m also very concerned around what misinterpreting the nuances of language will mean for the future of geopolitical discourse.

With those misgivings out of the way, there is also the issue of the host himself. In my piece last year about Lex Fridman’s softball conversation with Donald Trump, I wrote this:
I began to get off the Lex Fridman train after it became apparent that his naive “peace and love” attitude was utterly useless against Kanye West when the disgraced rapper appeared on his show in late 2022. Fridman (who himself is Jewish) was completely ineffective in combating West’s blatant antisemitic rants and perpetuation of conspiracy theories, making the whole conversation a waste of time. He has also been very disappointing on the war in Ukraine, preferring to platform Russia apologists like John Mearsheimer while taking the bizarre stance common in both paleoconservative and far-left circles that terrorist states like Iran wouldn’t be terrorist states if it wasn’t for the United States.
Having watched the entire conversation between Fridman and Zelenskyy, my opinion has not changed. Ukraine’s president was eloquent and skillful with his responses, while also demonstrating the patience of a saint when it came to Fridman’s naive questions and utterly asinine statements such as Vladimir Putin being someone who “loves his people.” At the same time, I do think that the podcast serves an important role in combating the contrarian anti-Ukraine sentiment that is currently being seen in MAGA Republican circles. Will it change anyone’s mind? That’s another problem entirely, but at the very least I can imagine it giving some people material to think about they otherwise would have never considered.
Whether out of genuine belief or for pragmatic reasons, Zelenskyy constantly praised Trump throughout the podcast and stated his belief that the incoming U.S. president has the will to help Ukraine end the war. Some may find this difficult to swallow, but Trump and Zelenskyy are actually quite similar to one another. Neither were politicians before they became the leaders of their respective countries and both have used knowledge of show business to their advantage with their political messaging. Zelenskyy has the more agreeable personality, but both men’s histories of being entertainers is something that could lend itself to an amicable relationship moving forward.
After the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, I don’t think Trump is going to make the same mistake with abandoning Ukraine. A Russian victory would look bad for his administration and if there’s one thing the former Celebrity Apprentice host refuses to look like, it’s a loser. As for Lex Fridman, he’s stated his intention to interview Vladimir Putin. If that does happen, no one should expect the same kind of warmness and patience Zelenskyy showed. I do expect Fridman to conduct another softball interview, which is exactly what the Kremlin would love to have.
What I’m watching — Stanley Kubrick before he was famous
I watched over 170 films last year and my goal for this year is to surpass that number while also posting a short, pithy review of everything I see to my account on Letterboxd. If movies are your thing, I recommend following as it will give you more commentary on works I don’t give a full write-up here at Foreign Perspectives.
As you can see, I’ve already reviewed quite a few Stanley Kubrick films and that’s because I’m going through his entire filmography in chronological order. My wife watches practically everything with me, so I use it as an opportunity to teach her about the history of cinema. It also gives me a refresher on stuff I watched as a teenager, but can now appreciate more as an adult. I’ve gained some new insights into Kubrick’s works, so that will be the subject of this and the next couple of columns.
For good reason, most have not seen Stanley Kubrick’s debut 1952 feature Fear and Desire. The director was just 23 years old when he transitioned from photography to filmmaking, and his lack of experience in the medium shows. While Kubrick demonstrates competence in contrasting light with shadow and there are few glimpses of his novel approach to cinematography, the haphazard editing and hammy performances give it the vibe of a student film shot in a forest with friends more than anything else.

Produced during the Korean War, Fear and Desire tries to be insightful with its themes of human conflict and savagery, but the undergraduate level script sounds like it was written by extraterrestrials who only observed human beings from afar instead of actually interacting with them. Still, it’s impressive that this film was made at all considering how nearly non-existent the independent movie scene was in the early 1950s. Kubrick tried to destroy all copies of Fear and Desire, but its existence in private collections allowed it to survive into the 21st century and anyone curious can watch the whole thing on YouTube since it’s public domain.
I doubt anyone would call Kubrick’s sophomore effort Killer’s Kiss their favorite nor does it really end up as anything too memorable, but it’s already leaps and bounds better. At a swift 67 minutes, it doesn’t waste your time and proves itself to be a decently interest film noir released during the genre’s declining years. Killer’s Kiss in many ways feels like the practice run for Kubrick’s far superior The Killing with how it works at building a slow burn setup into one satisfying denouement. To most, I would recommend starting here. Despite being released in 1956, The Killing more than holds up as a taut, methodically placed crime thriller up there with the best released in the last couple of decades. Viewers will note the similarities to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and I’m positive that the robbers wearing clown masks at the beginning of The Dark Knight was an intentional tribute.
The film that ends what I would consider Stanley Kubrick’s early period is 1957’s Paths of Glory. The term “anti-war” is often nebulous and ill-defined, but Paths of Glory is about as close as you can get. Kubrick fleshes out some of the ideas he began to explore in Fear and Desire, but with far more technical achievement and a stand out performance from Kirk Douglas. It’s both an unflinching portrait of World War One carnage and a dramatic depiction of a real event that occurred when four French soldiers were executed as an example to discourage cowardice.
The film’s standout sequence consists of a series of long takes depicting Kirk Douglas’ character Colonel Dax walking down the trenches before transitioning into a brutal assault against a German anthill that turns into a complete slaughter of French forces. Paths of Glory was quickly became controversial among the French for how it portrayed their soldiers, leading to a near 20-year ban in the country. Indeed, the film overall was not a great success for many decades due to its grim subject matter, but most today agree that it stands strong as a classic. How Paths of Glory depicts war is often contrasted with how Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket would later depict the same subject, but that’s a column for another day.
Join me next week when I dive into Kubrick’s eclectic 1960s filmography, which marked his transition into the auteur we know today.

What I’m listening to — Wham, bam, thank you ma’am!
Over the holidays I ended up seriously listening to the lyrics of “Last Christmas” by the British pop group Wham! for the first time. It’s obviously a classic tune at this point and I’m sure I’ve heard it many times in previous years, but for whatever reason it was never a major part of my Christmas music repertoire. While waiting for our burgers at Yokosuka’s famous local restaurant Tsunami, it happened to be one of songs playing. I subsequently added it to my Apple Music library while listening to it throughout our trip and later collected all of Wham!’s brief run of studio albums on CD.
While most holiday songs tend to be cheery and about subjects like spending time with loved ones, “Last Christmas” is almost an anti-Christmas spirit song. The story as told by the lyrics is more about a failed relationship than the Yuletide season itself, with Christmas being the starting point of a brief tryst which ends “the very next day.” Our bereaved protagonist encounters the same woman again one year later, and anyone who has been in a similar situation can relate to his conflicted feelings. I think that’s probably why “Last Christmas” resonates so much around the holidays. Many people unfortunately spend the end of the year alone or still feel lonely despite the company around them.

Enjoying the soundscape of “Last Christmas,” I decided to take a look at the rest of Wham!’s discography and was surprised to discover that they were also behind “Careless Whisper.” Yes, its opening saxophone line has been made fun of countless times and Deadpool more or less turned it into an even bigger joke, but it’s always been one of my favorites. This tends to be a reoccurring trend with me where I’ll listen to certain songs for years without knowing who was behind them or their cultural context. It all made sense though after I did further research into Wham!, finding out that they were part of the short-lived “Second British Invasion” which happened in the early 1980s.
British groups like Depeche Mode and Joy Division made their mark on both sides of the pond with their approach to catchy synth-pop tunes. Wham! was at the forefront of this movement, with the accessibility of their material pushing them to the top of the charts. The most famous acts of this era have long been in my music library, which is probably why I was instantly drawn to Wham! after going over their discography. The harder edge of pop like Michael Jackson and heavy metal like Metallica largely put an end to the Second British Invasion, but Wham! in retrospect calls back to a more innocent time for Gen X music. No need to think too deeply about their lyrical content, just kick back and have a good time.
Recommend listens:
“Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)”
“Last Christmas” — This music video in particular is notable for having its original film elements rediscovered, remastered in 4K, and being part of YouTube’s program to upgrade existing uploads of music in the highest quality possible. The results are quite stunning.
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