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Ushijima the Loan Shark Part 2's Trailer Streamed
posted on by Karen Ressler
The official YouTube channel for the live-action film adaptation of Shohei Manabe's Ushijima the Loan Shark (Yamikin Ushijima-kun) manga series began streaming a trailer on Monday for Ushijimia the Loan Shark Part 2. The trailer features the image song "Mangekyou to Chou" (Kaleidoscope and Butterfly) by Superfly.
Masatoshi Yamaguchi is directing the film and collaborating with Masahiro Fukuma for the script. Superfly is also performing the theme song "Live." Ushijima the Loan Shark Part 2 will open in theaters in Japan on May 16.
Takayuki Yamada (Train Man, Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, Crows Zero, Gantz, 13 Assassins) reprises his lead role from the 2010 live-action television series and 2012 film.
Gō Ayano (Gatchaman, Kamen Rider 555, Crows Zero 2, Gantz II: Perfect Answer, S -Saigo no Keikan-) joins the new season of the television series and the new film's cast as Inui (center right in photograph), an info peddler and Ushijima's close childhood friend. Kyōsuke Yabe (far left) and Hiromi Sakimoto (far right) return from the previous series and film as Ezaki and the former host company employee Takada.
The cast also includes Jinki Irie as Hiromichi Nakata, Kōhei Takeda as Takada's friend Hayato, Mai Sasaki as aspiring model Julia, Mana Sakura as popular model Papiko, Masaki Suda as Masaru Kaga (a gangster who is after the money of the Kaukau Finance agency), Akiyoshi Nakao as Koji Aizawa (the leader of the bosozoku gang “Aizawa Alliance”), Masataka Kubota as Rei Kanzaki (a young man who aims to be the number one host at a bar), and Yūya Yagira as Enuma (a laborer who is also a stalker).
The original Ushijima the Loan Shark manga depicts the human drama in the black market world, as seen through the eyes of the titular loan shark. Ushijima heads Kaukau Finance, an outfit that lends money at an illegal interest rate — "Togo" or 50% every 10 days.
The manga has been running in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine since 2004, and 7.5 million copies of its compiled volumes are in print. It won in the General category of the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2011. It was recommended by the jury at the 2007 (11th) Japan Media Arts Festival Awards. It was also nominated for Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize in 2008 and 2010, as well as for France's Angoulême Comics Awards in 2008. The first live-action television series ran from October to December of 2010, and the first film opened on August 25, 2012. The television series' Season 2 is began in January.
[Via: Eigapedia]
