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Ushijima the Loan Shark Live-Action Film's Full Trailer Posted
posted on by Egan Loo
The official website for the live-action film adaption of Shohei Manabe's Ushijima the Loan Shark (Yamikin Ushijima-kun) manga began streaming its full 93-second trailer on Tuesday. The story depicts the human drama in the black market world, as seen through the eyes of the titular loan shark. The film will open in Japan on August 25.
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 version of the manga. In the film, Ushijima participates in a celebrity event to collect on a debt and meets an event leader named Jun. Yuko Oshima from the all-female idol group AKB48 and Kento Hayashi from the live-action Arakawa Under the Bridge television drama and film also star alongside Yamada in the film.
Masatoshi Yamaguchi, the producer of the Ushijima television series and of the live-action Kaiji film, is directing the Ushijima film. Masahiro Fukuma and Yamaguchi wrote the script.
Ushijima the Loan Shark manga has been running in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine since 2004, and 5 million copies of its compiled volumes are in print. It won in the General category of the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards last year. 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 live-action television series ran from October to December of 2010.
