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For all the live-action manga/anime adaptations of popular properties, it is nice to see filmmakers give lesser-known works the cinematic treatment. Yama Wayama's manga series “Let's Go Karaoke!” while not on the same level of popularity as other comedic illustrated works, has garnered a positive reception in Japan and internationally. Surely, the strange yet humorous concept of the head of a high school choir giving singing lessons to a pitiful yakuza lieutenant could be solidly translated to film, especially in the hands of a talented filmmaker like Nobuhiro Yamashita, best known for his critically acclaimed feature “Linda Linda Linda.” Sadly, “Let's Go Karaoke!” is a movie that accomplishes the unfortunate feat of being both a lackluster comedy and a poorly conceived drama.

Let's Go Karaoke! is screening at Nippon Connection

One day, yakuza member Kyoji Narita is strolling through the rainy streets when he is drawn to the...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)

It is a fascinating thing to watch someone’s history of protest and addiction collide and conspire to hold a pharmaceutical company accountable and expose its parent family as reprehensible. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles the renowned photographer and activist Nan Goldin and her fight through the AIDS and opioid crisis, but this is bigger than a biographical documentary. Through slideshows, interviews, and family videos, Poitras weaves a riveting, heartbreaking interconnected story of generational pain, its influence over the blurry boundaries between life and art. – Jake K-s.

Where to Stream: HBO Max

Hannah Ha Ha (Jordan Tetewsky and Joshua Pikovsky)

Jordan Tetewsky and Joshua Pikovsky’s dryly humorous character study picked up the...

Music is transportive to the extremes in Masaaki Yuasa's works. In his 2008 anime "Kaiba," there's a heartbreaking organ scene that inspires a bitter old woman to reminisce on long-lost affection. In "Ride Your Wave," a cheesy love song summons the spirit of a deceased loved one, fleetingly, like an incantation. Yuasa and Science Saru's latest feature cocktail "Inu-Oh," steeped in the 14th century Muromachi period of the ruling shoguns, rolls out rock music that unleashes the restorative power to unlock revelations to mysteries, gives restless ghosts peace through lyrical storytelling, and allow two misfits to assert their place in the world.

Based on Hideo Furukawa's novel "The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-oh Chapters," Akiko Nogi's adapted screenplay kickstarts the film deceptively. At the behest of shady noblemen, young Tomona (Mirai Moriyama) opens an underwater cursed treasure that blinds him and kills his father (Yutaka Matsushige). The...

Director Masaaki Yuasa and screenwriter Akiko Nogi’s adaptation of Hideo Furukawa’s novel The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-oh Chapters finishes with a couple screens of text describing its titular Noh performer’s final years of success, despite his name being all but forgotten in comparison to the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’s personal favorite. It’s why these three have brought the story of Inu-oh to life—to ensure his name, and that of his friend Tomona from Dan-no-ura, a blind biwa-playing priest, won’t disappear again. What better way to do so than a 14th-century anachronistic rock opera set during Japan’s Muromachi period, courtesy two cursed men who dare give voice to the voiceless and subsequently free themselves from the chains that society uses to bind them?

Though the characters exist 600 years in the past, their story begins about 300 years earlier during a war between the Genji and Heike.

Fortissimo Films has acquired sales rights outside Asia to “Inu-Oh,” a Japanese animation film that will play at both the Venice and Toronto festivals.

The film is directed by Yuasa Masaaki with acclaimed Japanese animation studio Science Saru. It will have its world premiere in the Orizzonti competition section at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2021. That will be followed by a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Inu-oh” is an animated rock musical about a boy who was born with unique physical characteristics. One day he meets the blind biwa player. The boy asks him to write a song about him. The player writes and performs a song about the boy’s fate. They become a musical success and their career stars rise quickly in 14th century Japan. The boy frees parts of his body bit by bit while performing and the musician reconciles with his past.

Previous Annecy Cristal-winner Masaaki Yuasa is set to direct an animated musical fantasy film based on the life of a 14th century Japanese playwright and theater performer. His “Inu-Oh” is being introduced at Annecy’s Mifa market this week and is intended to be completed in 2021.

The film is adapted from the novel “Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh” written by Hideo Furukawa, and published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha. “Very little remains in the historical record about the Sarugaku Noh performer Inu-Oh, but with Hideo Furukawa’s bold interpretation of his story, Akiko Nogi’s script, and Taiyo Matsumoto’s images, it’s bound to become an amazing work,” said Yuasa. He said that he aims to make it as a “lavish musical incorporating modern-day music and dance.”

The project is produced through Science Saru, with Asmik Ace partnered as producer and distributor.

Yuasa made his feature-length debut in 2004 with “Mind Game,...

Simply put, the SXSW Film, Music and Interactive Festival is one of the biggest, most prestigious events in the media calendar. Taking place annually in Austin, Texas, it is beloved by film fans and filmmakers from all over the world, and has reached such heights by building a reputation for showcasing excellent content. This results in a high level of competition, with the Narrative Feature category alone having received 1442 submissions this year, and the documentary feature category having received 1,013.

The 2016 event looks to be particularly exciting, with many world premieres and feature debuts already announced. The Narrative Feature category will include Julia Hart’s Miss Stevens, Debra Eisenstadt’s Before The Sun Explodes, Joey Klein’s The Other Half, and Musa Syeed’s A Stray, among others, while the Headliner category will feature Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some.

The Narrative Spotlight category includes 9 Rides by Matthew A. Cherry; The Waiting...

The Tall Man's sphere is aiming its blades at Austin, as Bad Robot's 4K restoration of Don Coscarelli's Phantasm will screen at South by Southwest 2016 as part of the film festival's recently revealed Midnighters lineup:

From SXSW: "Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.

Carnage Park

Director/Screenwriter: Mickey Keating

The year is 1978. A team of wannabe crooks botch a small-town bank heist and flee with their hostage deep into the California desert, where they find themselves in a harrowing fight for survival against a psychotic ex-military sniper. Cast: Ashley Bell, Pat Healy, Alan Ruck, Darby Stanchfield, Larry Fessenden, Graham Skipper, James Landry Hebert, Michael Villar

Hush

Director: Mike Flanagan, Screenwriters: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel

A deaf woman is stalked by a psychotic killer in her secluded home. Cast: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan (World Premiere)

I Am a Hero...