News

Banana Fish, a classic manga from the 1980s and 1990s, provided a look at the life of American street gangs during those eras. Although it debuted at a time when it wouldn't have been able to become mainstream in the West, it's widely regarded as one of the best crime manga in Japan. This reputation has been revitalized in recent years, following the 2018 Mappa anime adaptation.

One of the most notable elements of Banana Fish is its homoerotic nature. Despite not being an official Boys Love series, Banana Fish has several cross-genre elements that were influenced by Bl. Here's how, despite not being classified as Bl, the series still ranks as one of the most prototypical and mainstream examples of it.

Related: Boys' Love vs. Shonen-Ai vs. Yaoi: What's Actually the Difference?

The Plot of Banana Fish

Before becoming an anime, the series began as a manga from Akimi Yoshida...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

Exactly one year after completing his accomplished Before trilogy at Sundance, writer-director Richard Linklater returned with Boyhood, a film 12 years in the making and worth every minute of the wait. Shot one week at a time over the course of a decade or so, Linklater explores the formative years of a young man named Mason, played by Ellar Coltrane. Born into separated parents, played by Patricia Arquette...

Time again for another cinematic look at fractured, non-conventional families, a subject that’s also popular on TV and in novels. This story concerns a quartet of sisters, ranging from 13 to 29, sharing a home with no parental figures in sight (for most of the tale). You might think you’ve seen this “drama-dy” before , but not in this way, or in this unique setting. This family fable is not set in the Us or Europe, but rather in Asia, Japan to be precise. It’s not adapted from a stage play, nor a standard literary best seller or “young adult” novel. This film springs from a comic book, which Us academics now call “graphic novels”, but best known in the far East as “manga”, a medium usually thought to feature mind-blowing science fiction and strange supernatural fantasies. Hey, if our comics can delve into subjects other than superhero epics, then...

Our Little Sister Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Guest Reviewer for Shockya Grade: B Director: Hirokazu Koreeda Written by: Hirokazu Koreeda from Akimi Yoshida’s Umimachi Diary Cast: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho, Suzu Hirose, Ryo Kase, Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Jun Fubuki, Shinichi Tsutsumi and Shinobu Otake, Opens: July 8th, 2016 Our Little Sister is a Japanese drama that opens and closes with a funeral, dealing with a family of three sisters living at a family home in a small Japanese town. The oldest sister Sachi (Haruka Ayase) is a nurse at a hospital’s Critical Care unit. She feels responsible for her siblings and runs the household. The [ Read More ]

The post Our Little Sister Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Are you all caught up with the best films of 2016 so far? It’s now time to turn to the other half of the year and July kicks things off with a promising slate of festival favorites and hopefully a decent summer blockbuster or two. It should be noted that the Coens‘ debut Blood Simple, recently restored, is getting a theatrical release ahead of a Criterion bow in the fall, so make sure to seek that out if it’s playing near you.

Matinees to See: Our Kind of Traitor (7/1), Men Go to Battle (7/8), The Infiltrator (7/13), Don’t Blink – Robert Frank (7/13), Tulip Fever (7/15), Seventh Fire (7/22), Summertime (7/22), The Land (7/29), Into the Forest (7/29), Gleason (7/29), Equity (7/29)

15. Cafe Society (Woody Allen; July 15th)

Synopsis: Set in the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. After returning...

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s story of siblings reunited has charm and hidden depths

This utterly enchanting tale of female family bonds (mothers, daughters, sisters) finds three twentysomething siblings travelling to the funeral of their estranged father, and meeting their 14-year-old half-sister for the first time. While Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live together with their shared memories, young Suzu seems all alone, until her new-found family invite her to come and live with them in Kamakura. “She may be your sister, but she’s also the daughter of the woman who destroyed your family,” warns a wary auntie. But despite the melancholic old wounds which her presence reopens, Suzu proves an entirely positive presence in this lovely, generous, and touching adaptation of Akimi Yoshida’s graphic novel Umimachi Diary. Filmed in mid- and long shots, which emphasise group framings over isolated close-ups, Our Little Sister may seem at first glance to be...

It is with a bit of embarrassment that I admit, amid Cannes’ overwhelming shuffle and hullabaloo, I’d failed to notice a new film from Hirokazu Koreeda. I was not alone, however. While one of the few consistently fêted contemporary Japanese filmmakers offering a new picture might seem like a bigger deal, we can understand when notices were generally lukewarm, the consensus telling us this, unfortunately, is not one of his better works.

I’ll nevertheless be curious to see the film, Our Little Sister, when it arrives in the U.S. this summer — especially on the strength of a new trailer, which often brings to mind his great Nobody Knows. This, despite our own negative take from the festival, which said, “Adapted from Akimi Yoshida’s highly successful manga Umimachi Diary, Our Little Sister is once again an examination of the dynamics amongst the members of a damaged family.

★★★☆☆ Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to UK cinemas with Our Little Sister, adapted from the Akimi Yoshida's manga comic. It tells the story of three grown women who live in their late grandmother's house and fend for themselves, as if a version of the family from Kore-eda's excellent Nobody Knows had somehow managed to make it into adulthood and self-sufficiency. Mother and father have divorced. Dad has another family now (they think) and mother is mainly absent, an intermittent but rare visitor. The sisters get along just fine without them, bickering and fighting and making up the way sisters do.

While no one is making video essays about his work, and he doesn't grab the immediate attention of folks like Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, or the Coens, Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of our favorite filmmakers around these parts. The man behind lovely and affecting dramas like "Like Father, Like Son," "Still Walking," "Nobody Knows," and "After Life," his pictures are distinctly Hirokazu Kore-eda-esque, and that continues with his latest, "Our Little Sister." Read More: Review: Hirokazu Kore-Eda's 'Our Little Sister' Starring Sachi Koda, Yoshino Koda, Chika Koda, and Suzu Asano, and based on the graphic novel "Umimachi Diary" by Akimi Yoshida, the story follows three sisters who meet their teenage half-sister for the first time at their father's funeral. Here's the synopsis:  Three sisters - Sachi, Yoshino and Chika - live together in a large house in the city of Kamakura. When their father -.

We already got a trailer for Hirokazu Koreeda‘s next feature After the Storm, likely coming to Cannes, but we’re still waiting on Sony Classics to give a release to his last drama Our Little Sister (titled Umimachi Diary in Japan). In the meantime, it’ll hit the U.K. next month and today brings a new trailer, and more. Starring Ayase Haruka, Nagasawa Masami, Kaho, and Hirose Suzu, the story follows a trio of adult sisters, living in their grandmother’s Kamakura home who are visited by a 13-year-old half-sibling.

We said in our review, “Adapted from Akimi Yoshida’s highly successful manga Umimachi Diary, Our Little Sister is once again an examination of the dynamics amongst the members of a damaged family. In attempting to tackle four protagonists, however, Kore-eda seems to have bitten off more than he can chew, delivering an uneven and ultimately superficial story of emotional maturation.

Let's begin with Giovanni Marchini Camia at the Film Stage: "Those who fault Hirokazu Kore-eda for retracing largely similar territory with each consecutive film will find their criticism corroborated by Our Little Sister, the Japanese director’s follow-up to his 2013 Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son. Adapted from Akimi Yoshida’s highly successful manga Umimachi Diary, Our Little Sister is once again an examination of the dynamics amongst the members of a damaged family. In attempting to tackle four protagonists, however, Kore-eda seems to have bitten off more than he can chew, delivering an uneven and ultimately superficial story of emotional maturation." We've posted the trailer and we're collecting more reviews. » - David Hudson...

Let's begin with Giovanni Marchini Camia at the Film Stage: "Those who fault Hirokazu Kore-eda for retracing largely similar territory with each consecutive film will find their criticism corroborated by Our Little Sister, the Japanese director’s follow-up to his 2013 Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son. Adapted from Akimi Yoshida’s highly successful manga Umimachi Diary, Our Little Sister is once again an examination of the dynamics amongst the members of a damaged family. In attempting to tackle four protagonists, however, Kore-eda seems to have bitten off more than he can chew, delivering an uneven and ultimately superficial story of emotional maturation." We've posted the trailer and we're collecting more reviews. » - David Hudson...

One of Japan's great filmmakers has a brand new movie on the way and we couldn't be more excited. Two years after his excellent "Like Father, Like Son," and from the man who gave us movies like "Still Walking," "Nobody Knows," and "After Life," Hirokazu Koreeda returns with "Umimachi Diary." And the first, full-length international trailer is here. Based on the manga by Akimi Yoshida, and starring Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho, and Suzu Hirose, the story follows three sisters who attend the funeral of their father who they haven't seen in 15 years. There they meet their 14-year-old step-sister for the first time and decide to care for her when no one else can. While we can't understand a single word in the trailer, we expect another lovely melodrama with complex characters and heart-punching emotions. "Umimachi Diary" opens in Japan on June 13th, and given he's a regular on the Croisette,...

Exclusive: Company racks up sales on Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World ahead of Berlinale premiere.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch has unveiled a packed Efm slate, including Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World, Michel Franco’s English-language debut Chronic and The Goetz Brothers’ Martyrs.

The company is already reporting strong business ahead of the Berlinale Special premiere for The Misplaced World, about a German jazz singer who discovers a family secret when she heads to New York to track down an opera singer who resembles her late mother.

It is von Trotta’s first film since her 2012 Hannah Arendt, which played successfully in theatres worldwide.

So far, The Misplaced World has been picked up for Spain (Golem Distribucion), Greece (Strada Films) Portugal (Leopardo Filmes), Hungary (Vertigo Films), Israel (Nachshon Films), Turkey (Calinos Film), Brazil (Mares Films) and Japan (Gaga Corporation). Van Trotta’s long-time distributor Concorde will release the film in Germany.

Wild Bunch co-chief...

Kamakura Diary

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda// Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda

Another Japanese auteur returning with another project is Hirokazu Koreeda, whose last film, 2013’s Like Father, Like Son won the Jury Prize at Cannes (and was optioned by Steven Spielberg for a Us remake). He’s back with an adaptation of Kamakura Diary by Akimi Yoshida, and stars several notable actors, including Riri Faranki (from Like Father, Like Son), Ryohei Suzuki (from Sono’s Tokyo Tribe and Kurosawa’s Seventh Code) and Masami Nagasawa (from Koreeda’s 2011 I Wish). Koreeda tends to prize the perspective of children (most notably with 2004’s Nobody Knows), and his latest concerns three sisters who live in their grandmother’s home, their existence disturbed at the arrival of their 13-year-old half sister.

Cast: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Suzu Hirose, Ryo Kase

Production Co.: Gaga, TV Man Union, Toho Company

U.S. Distributor: Rights available

Release Date: Already in post-production,...