Director Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, La La La at Rock Bottom) once again brings his affinity for music in cinema to this spirited adaptation of the sleeper-hit manga. When a suave, cool and aloof yakuza (Go Ayano) asks a solemn, angel-voiced high school chorister (Jun Saito) to teach him how to sing, it seems like a recipe for disaster. Yet this soon gives way to an endearingly odd bromance as the mismatched pair gradually open up and unwittingly impart their own respective wisdom to each other. Turns out the stakes are higher than expected for the world-weary yakuza, as he must take part in a karaoke contest with ominous consequences. The teenager also has to contend with the challenges that puberty and graduation present to his passion for the chorale. Replete with goofy shenanigans as well as sinister crime-film tropes, Yamashita imbues the duo’s individual journeys with both quirky humor and pathos to reflect their life-affirming musical bond.