“The yakuza are adept at staging a murder to look like a suicide. In a country, where autopsies are rarely performed, they get away with it too often,” says Jake Adelstein, the book’s author and an executive producer on the series.

The made-up suicide scene reminds some viewers of when Det. Stanley Switek found his partner, Det. Larry Zito in the same condition in the series ‘Miami Vice’ (1984-1989), a product that ‘Tokyo Vice’ shares more than a similar name but also the same executive producer, Michael Mann. It is still different from the new wave soundtracked tropical city painted with pastels, the sombre scene is shown in stern colours, and the cops wear worn-out cheap clothes.

Themes

It is the way ‘Tokyo Vice’ differentiates itself from its older American brother, from its premiere season, and from other cop dramas from TV and movies as a whole standing as one of the best crime dramas produced while meticulously peculiarly approaching themes of the genre.

“Death” is a present theme in ‘Tokyo Vice’ as it has a nihilistic darkness cracking through the walls that compose the characters’ lives. The demise of a cop serves as a harrowing signal to present that even those who are there to protect the citizens and are used to dangerous situations won’t be spared; therefore, the innocent can be harmed too, and those perpetuating violence are seen as a formidable threat to societal coexistence.

“Time” is also essential, as journalists and law enforcement agents are moving against it to prevent more drama from hitting the streets and contaminating the lives of those they care about, Tokyo and Japanese societies. It is a theme usually exploited by Mann, and in ‘Tokyo Vice,’ it is represented by luxury watches, particularly the very exclusive Vacheron Constantin that, with its elite status, seems to give a (false) feeling of breaking the inevitability of fortuná to their wearers.

“Silence” is another aspect that helps further the narrative of ‘Tokyo Vice.’ The way some communicate with spaced speeches, long staring with desperate or sorrowful eyes contrast with the American way of Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) but also brings a looming danger that is more hurtful than when the violence flows in a spray of bullets, a vicious stabbing or a pile-on beating as those affairs are solved in matters of seconds. Those moments with apprehensive faces mark how the work life of those in the night can be stressful and lead to mental health trauma that can manifest itself as life-threatening sicknesses.

Impact

‘Tokyo Vice’ is a foreign production that enjoyed more open shooting doors than any predecessor. It shows the city’s richness and will probably affect the tourist industry, even if it deals with such delicate and disturbing subjects. Nevertheless, there are scenes of love, not only carnal but also fraternal, that humanize these characters and the city itself, while the cinematography shows how unique its landscape is.

Although Adelstein is front and centre in the promo material, the series is an effort of an ensemble cast from which Ken Watanabe, with his weary and dutiful law agent, should be a contender in the awards season. Ayumi Tanida’s Tozawa is one of the most dreadful villains in recent TV, in pair with Jon Bernthal’s Wayne Jenkins from ‘We Own This City’ (2022). Meanwhile, the viewer can see Ansel Elgort growing as an actor before their eyes and see that the stylish Shô Kasamatsu added more layers to his youngster yakuza, showing traces of a true leading man. Second-season addition Yôsuke Kubozuka portrays a crazy-eyed secondary villain who is pretty very different from the young brother he portrayed in Netflix’s ‘Giri/Haji’ (2019).

The female cast, composed of Rachel Keller, Ayumi Ito, Miki Maya, Hyunri, and Makiko Watanabe, gave good performances and had enough time to stand out, showing us more about the lives of Japanese women who are associated with the yakuza or fight against it.
Film director and cinema historian, Paul Schrader, who knows a great deal about Japan, has lauded the dialogues. It proves the strength of a strong writers’ room, a class that has been battered, as seen during the strike last year.

Showrunner J.T. Rogers gave ‘Tokyo Vice’ season two a rare, satisfying final chapter that closes the story but opens for new branches. If greenlighted for a third season, it can go one more round, showing a new vision of Tokyo’s dark underbelly and those who venture into it.

Also Read: Tokyo Vice: Unmasking Japan’s Underworld with HBO’s Groundbreaking Crime Drama

The post ‘Tokyo Vice’ Ups Its Game For Season 2 and Confirms That It Is One of the Best Crime Dramas of Its Era appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Those scenes are taken from the first season of HBO’s Max ‘Tokyo Vice’ released in 2022 and gearing up for its second season, a product based in the homonymous book published in 2007 by American reporter Jake Adelstein who brought to the Western society the underbelly of Japanese organized crime and its gangs known as the yakuza. The series protagonist is a version of Adelstein played by American heartthrob Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) who shows depth in his portrayal, the narrative also features Academy-nominated Japanese luminaries Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) and Ken Watanabe (Last Samurai), who play Jake’s editor at the main Japanese newspaper and the policeman, respectively. The series is rounded by other international talent and the locals show what they can do with a material that goes far from the stereotyped images that are seen in mainstream media.

‘Tokyo Vice’ is executive produced by Michael Mann, the director of ‘Heat’ who held the same position in the quintessential 80’s show ‘Miami Vice,’ from which Adelstein confessed to me to be a great fan and borrowed the name for his story. Like the Floridian ‘Vice,’ the Japanese counterpart presents its players with flair, surrounded in a lavish environment inhabited by good-looking people, but all infused with darkness that corrodes its players from the inside straying away from the critics who might say that both shows glamourize the criminal lifestyle.

In ‘Tokyo Vice,’ the most gripping scenes are those where everything seems to be calm, as the air is filled with the possibility of violence that ends with lives abruptly in a nihilistic manner much like in the real world of those nightcrawlers. The show follows another Mann speciality by portraying how work life can harm personal lives and leave everlasting damages, an aftermath lived by Adelstein who lost many cherished ones and while carrying physical and psychological traumas that the series helps to understand due to character evolution.

In the case of the journalists, it shows how this profession can be not only demanding but humiliating and also portrays Japanese corporate culture without holding back, Adelstein suffers from being a “gaijin” (foreigner) in a homogenous place, still Kikuchi’s Emi represents what women journalists still endure in the press and in Japanese society as a whole.

Cops, thugs and night workers aren’t spared either as these people are stuck in a game of power while also playing against themselves for the little space available in what outsiders mistake for glamour and excitement. The clothing department shines in particular when the salary people are put close to the members of the yakuza or from other spheres of power, although Adelstein tries to come as elegant and debonair as possible, the fabric and colours of his suits denounce his place in the gaming board.

As expected in a Michael Mann production, it feels more like a movie than television due to cinematography, editing and soundtrack, even when we look at the current prestige TV. Its noir cinema influence pours on how Adelstein has a moral core, but he is not restrained by it like a self-righteous journalist, his unorthodox methods play a role in his competent journalistic skills which helps to understand why the real-life Adelstein is one of the best storytellers of his generation.

Adelstein swims in a pool of greyness as he doesn’t shy away from sleeping with hostesses, prostitutes, and other women. Still, he is not also revered by this behaviour as if he is an alpha male character, it fits the narrative by showing his humanity, and his womanizing ways are not complimented nor condemned, and they help to understand the character and the plot.

In its way, ‘Tokyo Vice’ shows a deeper Japan that is not tied to anime or kaiju nor restricted to high-art cinema circuits, actors like Watanabe and Kikuchi are already recognized although they show some shades not very much seen in their forays in American mainstream products, but ‘Tokyo Vice’ also brings talents like Hideaki Itō (Umizaru) playing a conflicted cop who wants to be seen as a flamboyant superstar or the novice gangster Sato who under the acting of Shô Kasamatsu goes through a large character development and can be perceived as its second protagonist and a counterpart, not an antagonist, to Elgort’s Adelstein.

By having veteran yakuza movies actor Shun Sugata (Ichi the Killer), it pays homage to a very popular Japanese genre, as Sugata plays a supposedly honourable mob boss pointing toward a past that, like him, is not as romantic as meets the eyes. A ranged acting that demands the viewer’s attention.

Vice is also a document of an era, the 90’s and early 2000’s Japanese country in a country that was starting to leave the notion that it was becoming an economic powerhouse due to the 80’s economic boom, but haven’t yet dealt with terrorist attacks and the ageing of its population while trying to deny that its youth was coping with more than they can handle and unassisted.

Sadly, the real Adelstein has not only to deal with the toll of his journey and life-threatening events but also to mediatic hit jobs that coincidently came around during awards season which might have taken a bit of the series’ steam, where members of the technical team and the talents of Watanabe, Itō and Kikuchi shouldn’t have been overlook in said ceremonies.

In ‘Tokyo Vice,’ the supporting players have full-fledged lives, and their suffering and joy aren’t just stepping stones to show how Adelstein is good thus making the accusations of playing to the “white saviour” trope being unfounded, the American reporter is a point-of-view character and not a demigod that came to put an end to the yakuza and the corruption in Japan.

‘Tokyo Vice’ is flashy like the city’s brimming 90s and early 2000s nightlife which makes those moments of discretion in the characters’ homes hit even harder and sets it aside from contemporary American series that aim to portray law enforcement and other classes as unwavering heroes of American exceptionalism. ‘Tokyo Vice’ deserves a meticulous look as it is one of the best crime dramas of today.

Also Read: How Anime Went International

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