Hacker Cinema
Tokyo Vice
2022 · TV series · 2 seasons
Created by J.T. Rogers
A first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat following Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. Based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction book of the same name.
7 positive1 negative1 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
Different language, but I’d highly recommend Tokyo Vice as a tv show.
The main actor, Ansel Elgort, learned Japanese in 1-month time.
https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ansel-elgort-learned-japanese-four-043943978.html
Granted he probably was learning more pronunciation to say his lines. But Japanese actors on set have commented at how surprised they were in his mastery of the language off camera in such a short amount of time.
I was bored and watched a few episodes. IMHO it was a sci-fi cliché. A context about my tastes in my IMDB rankings [1].
I don't watch many series but I think the sci-fi one Severance (2022) was really great. Also the Three Body Problem is very good (haven't read the books). Nowadays I am very entertained with Tokyo Vice and Shogun. I watched "The Fall of the House of Usher" completely but beyond the excellent production it is void (I am a Poe's fan). Ahhh, before I forget, I really enjoyed The Peripheral (2022). Older, but excellent: "The Main in the High Castle". The first chapters are a bit slow but you should pass them to truly appreciate the terrific acting of Rufus Sewell and the series.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/user/ur0601133/ratings
[2] https://www.primevideo.com/dp/0G0V91T4S396GV99H5BQ27PH5I
In season 2 of Tokyo Vice, they show character Jake, a reporter for newspaper Meicho Shimbun, using a native Japanese “word” processor to type in his stories. Really fascinating and seems to be authentic.
The Hollywood Reporter ran an article about it:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/tokyo-vice-problematic-source-material-1235135828/
Though he's disputed it.
His problems with National Geographic are telling... the same year he's unable to produce any connections for their show, he's got close enough connections to "high-ranking gangster bosses" to write an article where he purportedly has them play and discuss the video game Yakuza 3:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110214054056/https://boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html
(side note: this article describes him playing this game with these guys "one Thursday afternoon," having a teenager teach them to play a video game, having three separate people play this single-player game while discussing it, one of whom finishes it despite an average main story playtime of over 16 hours)
Interesting timing.
Just watching 'Tokyo Vice'[1] on Amazon Prime now.
There was an episode or two where Jake is chasing down a Yakusa Fan Magazine author to get intel on Tozawa.
Amazing Show! Reminds me a bit of 'The Wire'.
1. https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-Season-1/dp/B0B73QR4TM
You can watch a fictional(ized?) series (Tokyo Vice) about and produced by the author Jake Adelstein on HBO. I’ve watched the first season, season 2 recently released.
Tokyo Vice is worth watching in the sense you describe. It's pure 90s through and through.
“4-5 new HBO episodes every Thu and Sun”
There’s not anything particularly compelling right now IMO on HBO dropping new episodes except for Tokyo Vice… which others am I missing?
I'm older than dirt.
Last week I watched 'Severance' on Apple TV. It was very good. Last night I watched the first episode of 'Tokyo Vice' on HBO Max and it was definitely good enough that I'll keep watching.
Sure, Billie Eilish sucks, but Wet Leg doesn't. (Apologies if you like Bilie Eilish, but art is subjective, not objective.) There's good stuff out there being made today, you just have to look for it.