Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather

Kaori Makita's 2020 Japanese animation is adapted from the manga of the same name. Yashiro is a senior figure in a yakuza organisation, cold and calculating on the surface, who lives with a self-destructive relation to sex and uses it as a kind of punishment. His new bodyguard Doumeki carries a problem out of his own past, and what forms between them becomes a bond that cannot quite be named. The film belongs to a queer narrative tradition while keeping away from the familiar romantic shape, putting the entanglement of trauma and desire at its centre. The criminal organisation stays in the background. The telling is heavy and dark, and the animation stays faithful to the line of the manga. This film does not complete the series but covers part of it. Who it's for: viewers who can take Japanese animation for adults and queer drama. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach sexual violence, a history of abuse and self-harm.