Kasamatsu’s empathy-stirring performance will make viewers long for twice the screen time with this conflicted and soulful henchman. All that character development comes quickly in the compelling episodes that follow Tokyo Vice’s slower paced, Adelstein-centered premiere. He further bucks tired cliches about Yakuza fearsomeness after both falling for an American lounge singer named Samantha, played by the charming Rachel Keller ( Fargo, Legion, Dirty John), then dwelling on his marginal former life as a fisherman at Tokyo’s famous docks. We know Sato is in trouble when he not only struggles to obey his merciless mob bosses, but also fails to beat some kids at a first-person shooter arcade game in one of Tokyo Vice’s most gripping scenes. Both series feature a serviceable but bland American protagonist, while far more engaging local talent steals every vibrant, far-flung scene.Ī prime example is the slick-dressing, colorfully tattooed thug Sato, portrayed with Hamlet- esque ambivalence by rising Japanese actor Show Kasamatsu. Wladyka’s turn on Netflix’s Narcos is echoed on Tokyo Vice. It’s both humorous and pulse-pounding thanks to Josef Kubota Wladyka’s deft direction. Better still: the second episode opens with a chef chasing Adelstein with a cleaver because of his offensive interview questions. There’s the desperate Yakuza knife brawl (same one that features heavily in the series trailers) in an episode helmed by nascent Japanese director Hikari. Subsequent episodes are exciting and action packed–despite Mann not being behind the camera. Mann palpably captures the tension an American would feel taking such a test in Japanese. In one of its best scenes, Adelstein takes a required exam to work at one of Tokyo’s biggest newspapers as an entry level crime reporter. The premiere is action-free, but it is a subtle and engrossing opening chapter. Don’t expect police shootouts worthy of Mann’s magnum opus Heat. Despite being prominently billed in the series’ promos, Mann directs only the first episode, but stays on as an executive producer, a misleading, but forgivable bit of marketing. Adelstein’s efforts are impressive, especially in the pilot helmed by legendary crime auteur Michael Mann. Star Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein had promise when this series was announced, thanks to his distinctive turn in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. Adelstein inhabits those locales with ease, keeping his eye on Tokyo’s underbelly, pumping unscrupulous cops and ruthless Yakuza gangsters for information, forging unlikely friendships along the way. From the intimate izakaya late night restaurants, to the calligraphy coated neon pulsing a spectrum of shades on the claustrophobia-inducing, maze-like streets, it’s obvious Tokyo Vice was filmed on location. The series itself is even more immersive. Throughout the five episodes provided to critics ahead of the series’ premiere, Adelstein dives headlong into Japanese culture, speaking and writing with enough fluency to snag a job at one of Tokyo’s top newspapers. A grim and grisly new HBO mini-series, Tokyo Vice is loosely based on real-life American expat Jake Adelstein’s memoir about his crime cub reporter adventures in 1990s Tokyo.
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