When ‘Tokyo Vice’ ends with season 2, it will do so in a big way – Awardsdaily

You felt that from the first moment of the first season Tokyo Vice was something special. Created by award-winning playwright JT Rogers (and starring Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi and Rachel Keller, and Show Kasamatsu in the lead roles), the series began under the tutelage and pilot direction of the great Michael Mann. Mann created a moody and a kinetic setting that other filmmakers had to emulate for seventeen episodes.

You might say, “Good luck with that,” I’d be damned if Roger’s and the small group of directors he assembled (Alan Poul, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Hikari, Takeshi Fukunaga and Eva Sorhaug) weren’t up to the task. . Mann is a director’s director, but all those who followed Mann’s template while deftly deepening the personal relationships of everyone involved.

At first, it was easy to see Ansel Elgort as the naive crusading journalist Jake Adelstein (on whose real life story the series is based) as the protagonist. In today’s day and age, this might have raised an eyebrow: a white journalist in Japan at the center of the show. And while Jake remains the center of the series throughout, the Asian characters continued to creep to the forefront until the show became a true story.

Taken from Adelstein’s own book (aka Tokyo Vice), his story is remarkable enough in itself. After leaving Missouri, Adelstein becomes enmeshed in the Tokyo way of life. He learns the language perfectly, studies martial arts and becomes a fixture in the nightlife. Despite all his attempts to integrate into the Japanese way of life, Adelstein remains a boisterous and impatient American, which often gets him into trouble at his newspaper The Meicho, where he takes on crime. Like Ansel’s character, the real Adelstein was the first non-Japanese reporter ever hired at the paper.

But Adelstein, despite his obvious talent for chasing a story and his entrenchment in the culture, often breaks the rules of decency in his dealings with the police and the Yakuza, which not only drives his editor Eimi (a great Kikuchi) to distraction, but He is also often on the verge of dismissal, or worse, death.

But Jake finds a little happiness along the way by building a relationship with Detective Katagiri (the great Ken Watanabe). The tenacious Katagiri and the ruthless Adelstein form an uneasy bond as they attempt to infiltrate the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia).

From there we continue as Jake meets Samantha (a fellow gaijin – outsider) who is a hostess at a club bent on carving out her own niche, even if it means doing business with the Yakuza. Both characters form a dangerous friendship with Sato (Show Kasamatsu), which is full of push and pull tension as Sato is a conflicted but rising member of his own Yakuza faction.

I suppose all of these descriptions might seem like fairly typical culture-clash cop stories. But the show’s authenticity and drive take it to the next level. Tokyo Vice is not a simple cops and robbers story, it takes its environment and characters very seriously.

As Katagiri gets closer to the truth, he must find ways to protect his family from the Yakuza, putting a strain on their lives. Kikuchi’s Eimi must continually push the boundaries of what is acceptable among the relatively conservative Meicho to uncover the truth, all while managing a mentally confused brother. Samantha must guide the creation of her own club while constantly negotiating with the Yakuza to maintain the stability of her location, and Sato does everything he can to protect his two gaijin friends (and his brother who wants to follow in his footsteps). and at the same time remain loyal. to his Yakuza faction.

In other words: there’s a lot going on here. Many shows may have stuck to the superficial details of the story and created a fine procedural, but Tokyo Vice is as concerned with character as it is with the thrust of the story: the attempt to take down a particularly ruthless leader named Tozawa (a terrifying Yamudi Tanida), who through negotiations and, if necessary, brute force, wants to bring all Yakuza together. families under his care.

Season one deftly sets up the slow burn of season two as Sato’s Obayun (Yakuza leader) makes the grave mistake of raising a loose cannon named Hamaya, which Sato must try to control without completely colliding. Interestingly enough, it’s Sato, the reluctant Yakuza who becomes the heart of the show as he plays a role surrounded by bigger names.

Kasamatsu is a huge star in Japan, and you can see why. It radiates coolness and is easy to heat at the same time – no easy feat. And as the season closes with Sato’s ascension ceremony (beautifully shot and edited by director Wladyka, cinematographer Daniel Satinoff and editor Ralph Jean-Pierre) with pounding drums and great attention to detail, you never lose the feeling that Sato doesn’t necessarily want anything this honor. Part of him longs for a normal life, but the moment the layers of robes are placed on his shoulders and he rises to the center of the room on his knees and accepts his new status to the sound of pounding drums, the hope for a normal life disappears. And all these emotions play out wordlessly in Kasamatsu’s remarkably expressive eyes.

Season two ends on a nice muted note. Adelstein visits Katagiri at his home. The aging detective is considering retirement after completing the case of a lifetime – let’s say using some very unique methods. Adelstein suggests that perhaps his life would settle down. Katagiri objects to Jake’s suggestion. He sees Jake for what he is: an adventurer, an adrenaline junkie. He challenges Jake to simply sit with his eyes closed and count to ten, while clearing all other thoughts from his buzzing brain. Adelstein doesn’t make it to three. He pops up from the back porch and says he needs to “take a leak.” Katagiri smiles. He then thinks about the challenge he presented to Jake and decides to tackle himself silently, and as the camera fixates on Watanabe’s beautiful face, he notices that he doesn’t get an A either, and then he laughs. Jake may be a gaijin and Katagiri a native, but they are cut from the same cloth.

Fade to black.

MAX has not guaranteed a third season of Tokyo Vice so far, but the word is promising. Yet in the modern world of streaming, even great shows with a solid following often don’t make the cut. While I desperately hope that isn’t the case with this compelling modern neo-noir, if it is, no one can argue that the show didn’t stick the landing: legs straight on the mat and arms perfectly straight .

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