Tokyo Vice Series Review
Today is Valentine's Day but what can i say i am in love with Movies and Series and thus the relevant post. Even though you might say this isn't a new series as it was released in 2022, its second season just came out a week ago. Also, i just discovered the show and watched season 1 in 2 days, thus you might say i quite enjoyed it. Let's start with the review though and the plot.
Plot
Tokyo Vice is a max original show that aired as i said above in 2022. The first season has 8 episodes and the second will have 10 in total. Currently, only 2 episodes from season 2 are out. The creator of the show is J.T. Rogers, I don't the guy but he did a good job i can say. The main stars of the show are Ansel Elgort whom again i didn't know and Ken Watanabe who mostly everyone knows for his role as Katsumoto in the Last Samurai movie.
So the story is set in Japan and basically highlights life in Japan both in front and behind the scenes. We have our protagonist Jake (Ansel) who has decided to move and stay in Japan. Apparently, his dream is to become a journalist in one of the biggest publications in Tokyo, a dream and goal that he achieves with hard work.
Now Jake needs to write articles regarding crimes in Japan and due to his courageous nature let's say, he wants to take on one of the city's most powerful crime Yakuza bosses. To do this he will delve into their world and he will also try to become friends with detective Katagiri (Ken) who is known as an uncorrupt cop even the Yakuza is afraid of.
As the story continues we will be introduced to more people with different personalities and jobs like Sato who is part of a Yakuza clan, Samantha who is another Western person working as a hostess and many more.
What I Liked and What I Didn't
Starting with the good, the acting is spot on and we get to see some serious character development and i am not talking about the protagonist only. It's really great to see a show focusing on the other "side" characters as well, i believe that way the whole show becomes better. There are also some cool fight scenes but nothing much as the show doesn't exactly focus on that aspect.
The most amazing thing though is that it accurately highlights the Japanese culture, not the culture we get to see as tourists but what the people living there, even the foreigners living there have to keep up with everyday. Yakuza clans controlling small businesses and even politicians, women from countries like Russia working as hostesses, Japanese working culture with long hours, yelling and biased mindset towards foreigners and so on.
I know people that have visited Japan and people that lived there for over 2-3 years and i remember them telling me a lot of things that i actually saw in the show. Also, i read many reviews of the show and many people who worked in Japan confirmed the same about their working culture. That means that they did a pretty good job highlighting the reality.
Last but not least there is tension almost in every episode. You don't exactly know how things will end up even though most likely good will prevail, but from what i have seen so far, "good" hasn't prevailed the slightest.
The only bad thing i have to say, is that i wanted to see a more in-depth focus in Yakuza and their lives and also more fight scenes. I don't talk about fancy martial arts fights or something but i would like to see more. I believe that way we will get to fully see the cruelty let's say and there will be more tension.
Overall, this is quite an awesome series, another hidden gem that i highly suggest. I don't how season 2 will play out and if it will be as good as season 1, better or worse but i have at least high hopes. I would definitely suggest this series to anyone and i would give an 8.5/10! Based on IMDb it has an 8/10 rating!
Happy Valentines!