‘Tokyo Vice’: corruption in Tokyo

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The pilot chapter of this highly recommended police drama is drawn by Michael Mann, a man who knows what he’s doing when it comes to film noir. The director of ‘Miami Vice’ visits Japan with his well-trained camera, he is 80 years old. become

Released without the fanfare it deserves, “Tokyo Vice” could become one of the series of the season thanks to an excellent introductory chapter directed by the unpredictable Michael Mann, an erratic but always suggestive filmmaker, able to give his best as he a decent material on his hands (it doesn’t always happen). The person in charge of the great ‘Heat’ – honored, that is, by Christopher Nolan in ‘The Dark Knight’ – or recommending ‘Collateral’ -one of the best movies starring Tom Cruise- , among other titles of cinephile interest, has lately been immersed in the anonymity of television production. In 2015, he returned to directing, trying to update himself with a confusing cyberthriller, “Blackhat: Amenaza en la red”, the result of which is better to forget, but the pilot episode signaling the opening of the production that worries us. gives birth, already available in HBO Max, reminds us of his undeniable wisdom behind the camera. With a powerful classic story, it takes us into the story of a gaijin, a young westerner trying to adjust to life in Japan, fleeing the family problems he leaves behind in the US. The story is set in the late 1990s in Tokyo, where the daring protagonist goes to work in a Japanese newspaper of notable importance. In his desire to do his best and find himself, he goes in search of the truth (and the news) where he is not called. He is completely caught up in a spiral of information that leads him into the dark and disturbing world of the Yakuza. Sniffing around the affairs of the Japanese mafia is not the best way to go unnoticed.

“Tokyo Vice,” inspired by journalist Jake Adelstein’s book, describes the courage of a confused character in a setting that doesn’t make it easy for him. He wants to integrate and stand out, but he is still a stranger in a reality that he gets to know little by little. This feeling is well reflected in the story thanks to the work of Mann -who also takes great care in the executive production-, whose witness Josef Kubota picks up Wladyka in the following chapters, featured in the directing credits of series like ‘Narcos’. or ‘Animal Kingdom’. Tokyo is again shown as a prime setting, smoky, with neon lights – it is the 90s. The description of the criminal environment is elegant. It moves through the underworld without eruptions, at a leisurely pace that becomes excellent for what you want to tell. As the footage progresses, the action diversifies into different characters apart from the lead hack, including roles belonging to organized crime. Police officers, colleagues, gangsters and corporate ladies move around the reporter. The ideal fauna to generate a curious network whose secrets are revealed with a kind of narration that fits like a glove. Despite appearing to embrace the postulates of ‘The Last Samurai’, with a western subject coming to Japan to adapt to the country, assuming the postulates are the best, and things in their place turn, the course of events is going for other directions.

Created by playwright JT Rogers, a writer on “Oslo,” the series begins with a powerful premise: “There are no murders in Japan.” It is the explicit sentence that the head of the newspaper section throws at the main character, openly annoyed, when he is working on his first report, deviating from what really matters. Until the contrary is clearly proven, which is difficult without witnesses, the Japanese mafia does not kill in the street, although an inert body, in a pool of blood, with a knife in the heart, says the opposite when the first reporter visits a crime scene. It will be the starting point of your walk through the dark side of Japanese society. Rookie in his profession and a foreigner in a very different country from the US, the main character, played by Ansel Elgort (“West Side Story”), finds his place and clears doubts. He is joined by a charismatic veteran detective, played by the immense Ken Watanabe (“Memoirs of a Geisha”); an enigmatic business girl who wants to run her own business overnight, in the shoes of Rachel Keller (“Legion”); and a yakuza project full of contradictions, the face of which is drawn by Shô Kasamatsu (“The Naked Director”).

‘Tokyo Vice’ part of the real journalistic work of Jake Adelstein. At just 24 years old, he went to work in the events department of one of the largest newspapers in Japan. He was far from mastering the codes of the Land of the Rising Sun, unlike his native Missouri, but he ventured to work as the first foreigner in the history of Japanese journalism. For twelve years he handled cases related to extortion, murder, human trafficking, corruption… He cooperated with the police and acted as interlocutor with the Yakuza themselves, until an investigation pulled him on the ropes, he feared for his life and returned home. Mann, who has turned 80, marks the visual style and pace of the series with its beginnings. The thriller gains weight as the plot’s interest is split among the various secondary characters, far more interesting than the main character, whose stance as a Western savior is eventually watered down.

‘Tokyo Vice’ is available on HBO Max.

Source: La Verdad

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