Tokyo Vice
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
Michael Mann’s return to crime serials, and the best journalism drama of the decade. Based on Jake Adelstein’s memoir, Ansel Elgort plays the real Adelstein, the first Western journalist at a major Japanese newspaper, chasing crime stories in 1999 Tokyo and falling into the orbit of the yakuza, led by a mid level boss (Ken Watanabe, magnificent as a lawless man with a code) who becomes his source and his curse.
The production shoots Tokyo like a character, neon alleys, hostess bars, the fluorescent newsroom where Adelstein’s editors teach him the bushido of Japanese journalism. The middle episodes deliver Mann level tension; the hostess club storyline with Rachel Keller’s Samantha is a whole noir in miniature. Season 2 expands the war and ends the story properly. This is adult crime drama, patient, violent, morally complicated, and nobody watched it, which is the crime.
Verdict: Watch it. The best thing Michael Mann has made this century.
