Based on the memoirs of journalist Jake Adelstein (Tokyo Vice 2009: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan), Michael Mann’s Tokyo Vice creaks with intensity, offering a compelling, riveting look back to a time when the director was ruling his nest. cinematic crime dramas. One of the less fascinating retro elements, however, is the story presented through an Anglo-American lens, but Mann and his team still paint a dense portrait of Japan’s policing methods, reference style and the necessary social balance with integrated organized crime. Once envisioned as a film starring Daniel Radcliffe, Tokyo Vice is emerging from a decade of development as a series with Ansel Elgort of West Side Story as Adelstein, a “gaijin” crime journalist for Tokyo’s largest newspaper, who goes over his head while investigating a rogue. faction of the Yakuza. There are not many directorial styles that take you immediately back to a different movie era, but Mann does. With his trademark love of cityscapes and soft neon exposed to everything from Thief 1981 to Miami Vice 2006, Mann (who is the executive producer and director of the first episode) gives us boots in Tokyo: from a crowded subway to a hostess club in bullpens newspapers. It has the rich quality of love letters that Mann usually reserves for Los Angeles, and it is so evocative of the ’90s that we even have a drop of a needle from Pearl Jam’s “Ten”. Elgort’s career has been hit or is lacking in charisma, but here, as a tall fish out of water, he acquires a “default presence”, as a young man who worked to the bone to speak fluently in all things Japan, from language in culture, in order to pass the entrance exams of a journalist. It is strange that Adelstein believes that he will be able to do real reporting – as in investigative journalism – in Japan, since someone who has wrapped himself in the city like him would surely know better, but this hiccup serves as the initial conflict for these first three hour episodes. Notorious for controlling the information, the Japanese police simply tell the newspapers what to print and then these details are revoked without a frame. Adelstein wants to do real reporting and yet he has traveled to a place where this is not practical. The horror behind all this is that Adelstein, because of his western stubbornness, will manifest his destiny as a junior scoop. There have been many East-meets-West dramas over the years and Tokyo Vice most reflect Ridley Scott’s Black Rain in terms of its central cultural conflicts, though this series – despite the fact that the Legion star (Rachel Keller) also works as a hostess for employees, as did Kate Capshaw’s character in that 1989 film — given the opportunity to be more thoughtful and respectful overall. In this case, adapting Adelstein’s book to a series through a film was the right appeal, as the vast amount of time he spent in Tokyo does wonders for history. The minutes pass without dialogue, simply allowing us to be in the city, to walk with the flow of passengers or to spend the night in a tiny one-room apartment. Starting things off with three nearly 60 minute episodes sounds like chores in this busy age of content, but from the third episode, we’ve come to a much more satisfying part of the story, as the pilot is in the media opening (this it starts with a fascinating scene and then jumps two years back for the rest of the story). Ken Watanabe plays a veteran detective, Katagiri, who eventually becomes friends and collaborates with Adelstein to overthrow a particular branch of the Yakuza. Tokyo Vice nicely takes his time to bring the two together, allowing Katagiri to come off like a ghost in the first two episodes, while Adelstein tries to meet a more opportunistic and noisy detective played with fun talent from Hideaki Itō. The slow-burning design works well here, as Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton directs all episodes of Tokyo Vice after the premiere, echoing Mann’s stylistic model while typing in tight mystery elements. Tokyo Vice follows typical narrative steps, uploaded here by a great mood and great cinematography. “ Although Tokyo Vice is a Mann-directed play, Cretton does 90% of the directing, handling the real meat of the story, not just the introduction. As these first three episodes take us on a journey through Adelstein idiots as the first American to work in the Tokyo News (with Pacific Rim’s Rinko Kikuchi as his stern but ultimately supportive boss), Watanabe can step in and give story more depth and texture. Adelstein, as a character, demands a big lead, while Katagiri, because of the ease with which Watanabe incarnates the roles, can appear much of his story through his squashed face and how we imagine it must be to be police officer in the city where “murder” does not exist without an eyewitness. Other stories told, also related to Adelstein’s bow, include Keller’s Samantha, who like Adelstein has left her family in search of independence and reinvention, and Show Kasamatsu’s Sato, the younger brother of a Yakuza lieutenant who, like our main character, he is making mistakes right and left in the world he is in. Adelstein and Sato travel in parallel, somehow keeping both eyes on Samantha as they try to make their mark. It’s too early to call it a “love triangle”, but this trope is definitely hanging over. After three episodes, Keller and Kasamatsu are more exciting in their lives than they are with Adelstein, but all roads have to converge, right? Tokyo Vice still follows standard narrative steps, uploaded here by a great mood and great cinematography. Tokyo Vice: Season 1 Gallery
