4/5
Vice City Stories.
10 Episodes. Starring: Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, Rinko Kikuchi, Ayumi Ito, Atomu Mizuishi, Hyunri Lee, Miki Maya & Yōsuke Kubozuka. Created By: J.T. Roberts. On: Max.
'Miami Vice', this is not. Whilst Crockett and Tubbs roll up their pastel coloured suit sleeves to look the part. Ansel Elgort ('Baby Driver', 'West Side Story') and Ken Watanabe's ('The Last Samurai', 'Inception') respective journalist and detective characters do the same to their black and beige, in order to do the dirty work that no one else will. Take on the Yakuza in Japan where most hide the honest truth behind the three faces they show at work, home and to themselves only. 'Billionaire Boys Club' and 'Divergent' star Elgort playing journalist Jake Adelstein, whose memoir ('Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat In Japan') this series is based on ('The Last Yazua' writer's own sequel 'Tokyo Noir, is coming soon, and we hope it will inspire a third season here), has endeared himself to Japanese audiences, learning the language and respecting the culture with the deepest of bows. Much like 'Batman Begins', 'Godzilla' and 'Letters From Iwo Jim' star Ken Watanabe did in Hollywood after he made his Hollywood debut in Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai', alongside fellow Japanese legend Hiroyuki Sanada. The '47 Ronin' and 'Mortal Kombat' actor's own seriously successful 'Shōgun' series on FX, going head-to-head with his old friend.
Watanabe and Elgort are excellent in J.T. Roberts' ('Oslo') vice grip in the land of the rising sun. Especially when they get their Starsky and Hutch (complete with the classic car) on over coffee or whiskey, as they swap stories and share information. Both men knowing what it's like to go against the tide of traditions that are so ingrained into a Tokyo that is one-half, still part Edo era, and the other, watching the western world it takes cues from in inspiration, all whilst being its own individual, compelling city as it is. Ansel handles what it's like to be a foreigner (or, somewhat disrespectfully, "gaijin") here in all its dream like wonder and disillusioned loneliness. Whilst Watanabe earns his spurs again as a Casio watch in a G-SHOCK time that must adapt to the Japan he thought he knew shifting under his feet. Let alone the dark underworld that threatens to take him from within. Just wait until he literally breaks down a scene. It's a masterclass in a double-act. But it doesn't end there. You only need to see the views of the establishing shots of Tokyo (looking as iconic as New York in the movies) to realize how vast and nuanced this place is, just like the millions of inhabitants who squeeze onto the trains every day in the same suit and ties that bind. 'Legion' and 'Fargo' star Rachel Keller goes even deeper, showing you just what it's like for a woman in the shadier parts of Tokyo and Japan, especially an American one. And this time she's joined by a standout second season star Hyunri Lee. The South Korean 'Pachinko' actress, giving you a closer look at the real lives between those dedicated to more than just a service in a hostess club.
Opening up even more stands of plot and people brought into this world from mobsters to architects. Yet it's first season scene stealer Show Kasamatsu who continues to show out. The yak with a heart who inks an even more inspired portrayal in this season, just when you thought he'd done it all in what looked like his character's winter. But it's the make-or-break stakes with his younger brother Atomu Mizuishi (the young 'Prince Of Tennis') that are a real study. Especially when live-wire gangster and J-pop star Yōsuke Kubozuka ('Giri/Haji' and the guy who kept stepping on s### in Scorsese's 'Silence') gets involved. Highlighting the rest of this rich and compelling cast of characters (although Ella Rumpf and Hideaki Itō are missed), 'Babel', 'Pacific Rim' and 'Norwegian Wood' Rinko Kikuchi is one of the stars of the show, and this journalist has her own serious side story that demands your attention. And on the Watanabe side of the investigation, icon Miki Maya makes her mark. From Hiroshima and born in the same year as the Tokyo Olympics, Maya has built an incredible career from the Troupe theatre, all the way to movies like 'Once Upon A Crime'. She's also dubbed in acting work for American movies akin to Japan, like 'Hachi: A Dog's Tale' and 'Godzilla x Kong; The New Empire', but nothing carries like her voice here as a National Police Agency detective who takes the lead and no prisoners. Add the 'Final Fantasy', 'Story Game' of Ayumi Ito's beautiful but Capulet and Montague doomed romance and these vices have everything you could ask for in a ('Tokyo!') tale. And it's true too...all of it. This nuanced noir by the book is a journalistic investigation that will leave ink on your fingers, like the prints ready to be taken by the police with their own story. It's a mob hit like no other. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Shōgun', 'The Journalist', 'Giri/Haji'.
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