tokyo vice review

1. Tokyo Vice (2022) HBO Max Original Series Review | Episodes 1 – 3
2. TOKYO VICE Ending Explained & Season 2 Theories!
3. Hard Lessons Learned From Tough People: Jake Adelstein at TEDxKyoto 2012
4. Tokyo Vice | 2022 | Review | The Return of Michael Mann!
5. Tokyo Vice author joins Lateline
6. Tokyo Vice: Season 1 – TV Review
7. How Ansel Elgort Learned Japanese For Tokyo Vice

Tokyo Vice (2022) HBO Max Original Series Review | Episodes 1 – 3

do you like crime dramas well hbo max is,launching their new memoir-based drama,tokyo vice about the yakuza and an,american journalist and those first,three episodes are coming out together,so should this be on your binge list,a western journalist working for a,publication in tokyo takes on one of the,citys most powerful crime bosses so,this is loosely inspired by american,journalist jake adelsteins non-fiction,first-hand account of the tokyo,metropolitan police beat and its filmed,on location in tokyo and then it,captures adelsteins daily foray into,the underbelly of tokyo in the late 90s,the hbo max is releasing the first three,episodes together and then were gonna,have two episodes each week following,that now this is squarely a drama series,that i found a little slow to get into,but thats the beauty of having the,first three episodes drop together i was,intrigued by the premiere episode which,also happens to be directed by michael,mann we start out in a tense meeting and,before the story gets too far into that,meeting we flash back two years so we,can get all of the context for what is,sure to come ansel elgort plays jake,adelstein this american guy who wanted,to be a crime reporter and in an effort,to carve his own path he moves to japan,now we watch him studying constantly,hes reading hes writing even what,looks like to be transcribing to just,perfect his written japanese once hes,able to finally land a job at a,newspaper he still has so many different,obstacles to overcome these are,sometimes tedious to watch but also,these scenes show us enough detail so,that we can begin to feel his,frustration as jake tries to figure out,his way within the paper and the process,he finally is able to make some inroads,with some police who help him understand,just all of the inner workings of the,relationship between the police and the,journalists the intriguing portion,throughout this is that were not only,shown the perspective of jake but also,the story follows a young yakuza,underling named sato as he goes about,his tasks in the crime organization now,sato is either becoming disillusioned,with the whole thing or hes becoming,hungry for more power and responsibility,i think its going to be equally,entertaining to watch either of those,play out his path eventually crosses,with jakes and that then became the,story i really want to follow ken,watanabe also stars in this as a,seasoned police officer whos tasked,with keeping the peace between yakuza,families and this is pretty interesting,and even eye-opening because the show,dives into the relationships and then,procedures to give us some good,background but it doesnt get bogged,down in tedious details that are,unimportant to the story from a,technical perspective this is a fairly,dark series i mean much of what we see,takes place at night with only neon,signs and amber colored street lights to,provide the illumination now it really,helps to create this gritty and sorted,atmosphere which i think then contrasts,really well with how well-dressed and,clean looking everybody is the editing,is also a little choppy its not that,way throughout the entirety of each,episode but there are some jumps here,and there that felt a little abrupt for,the storytelling and well have seen,transitions that feel almost like were,missing a bit of info or maybe that the,story skipped over pieces this isnt,always a terrible thing but there are,portions where its noticeable which,then led to a less cohesive watching,experience the base of this is also,fairly slow so far its not boring but,its not action heavy or even action,oriented this focuses much more on,dialogue and jakes pursuit of a story,and even when there are small moments of,action theyre very brief and the action,is really less of the focus of the story,but instead the ramifications of those,actions are really what become the,driver of the story and each of these,episodes so far is about an hour so this,is a time commitment to bench but what i,found happening is that as the story,went along i was drawn in more and more,to this quiet but building drama and,jake is also learning the ropes but at,the same time diving into a story that,he may not be prepared to handle and i,appreciate that the story will just have,us follow jake around putting us into,his mindset through his actions theres,this one scene where hes walking,through a market just perusing the,aisles listening to a taped message from,his sister back home these types of,scenes are quiet and seemingly mundane,but theyre really important because,they work to illustrate how,relationships are built for jake and,then how he values the connections that,hes making in addition to jakes story,and that story following sato we follow,sam whos an american working as a,hostess now we get the feeling that,shell become pretty important in future,episodes but in these first three she,becomes the link between sato and jake,shes playing both sides but from how it,appears now shes not trying to really,game any system other than her own,benefit shes not setting up one for the,other but my guess is that at some point,down the line her involvement is going,to cause some problems for jake sato or,maybe both of them this takes place,between 1999 and 2001 at least so far,and i love how as the story is building,out the environment that jake has to,function in hes met with all kinds of,oppositions within the newspaper and,hes obviously stands out as a foreigner,but its really intriguing to see how,hes treated as a result the show,focuses on so many different scenarios,of power also some are very obvious and,overt while some are really subtle and,each is equally engaging but for,different reasons we see the power or,authority structure within the newspaper,where jake is close to the lowest rung,just being a foreigner but his immediate,supervisor is a woman and its,illustrated how she is barely elevated,above him and then we have the power,relationship between the police and the,press between the yakuza and the,citizens and even between the police and,the yakuza i mean each of these has a,different and engaging dynamic that,makes the story richer and more,compelling i love that because the,series starts off in the present showing,us what is to come for jake it makes the,anticipation and the build up of the,drama that much more intriguing if you,start watching this series and at the,end of the first episode youre not,totally engaged i suggest giving it a,little bit of time now i know it is a,bunch for a series to ask that you,invest so much time before getting,totally hooked but somewhere after that,first episode my guess is that youre,going to become engrossed in the,narrative thats playing out and before,you know it youre gonna be hooked and,ready to see what comes next i like that,this release schedule with the three,initially and then two each subsequent,week allows for a feature length,experience in the binge so overall tokyo,vice is a slower and quieter drama that,begins building in the intrigue and,intensity taking time to establish the,characters and the environment,especially for any that are not familiar,with japan its social politics or even,the yakuza the acting is well done,crafting characters that can be,sympathetic despite massive flaws who,are also mysterious and enigmatic,the pace is deliberately patient and the,aesthetics are captured well thanks,mostly to being shot on location in,tokyo there are wonky transitions and,some of the editing does feel a bit,choppy but on the whole this subdued,crime drama is building in intensity and,becoming pretty captivating theres no,sex a little nudity a lot of profanity,and some very brutal violence including,suicide i give episodes one through,three of tokyo vice three and a half out,of five couches are there any good crime,dramas that youve watched recently let,me know what they are in the comments,below if you enjoyed this review please,give it a like also dont forget to,share and subscr

TOKYO VICE Ending Explained & Season 2 Theories!

tokyo vice is a gritty neo-noir crime,thriller that digs into the underbelly,of tokyos warring yakuza clans and asks,the question can ansel elgort sing i did,musicals,as of the writing of this video season 2,has not been confirmed but holy crap,does this ending leave us with a lot of,setup for a potential second round so in,this video well be taking a look at,season 1 some of those details you,missed and theories for season 2. and be,sure to like and subscribe because if i,dont film my light quota sado is going,to be very disappointed when he comes,collecting this is jake adelstein the,first foreign hire at macho shimbun the,worlds largest paper with a daily,reader base of 12 million macho isnt a,real paper in japan in fact many of the,names of companies and characters,throughout the season have been changed,so its likely this is based off yomiuri,which once held the guinness world,record for most red newspaper jake has,left his life in missouri to get away,from the pain of his family in episode 3,we learn his dad disowned him and his,sister tried to kill herself my father,you just wish would shut up with the,high expectations and disown me already,my mom,cant accept my little sister is not,going to try to kill herself again so,every call she makes to me is full of,guilt so jake runs as far as he possibly,can to tokyo japan the theme of the,runaway is something found in many of,our characters in one way or another sam,porter the nightclub hostess ran away,from her controlling father and life as,a mormon sato ran away from his life as,the son of a poor fishmonger hoping to,make a name for himself as a member of,the yakuza not only do these characters,share a propensity to run away but,theyre all extremely ambitious jake,studies his ass off for years learning,japanese and immersing himself in the,culture to get a chance to join the best,newspaper in the world even when he gets,the job he continues to strive for,excellence wanting to one day become a,renowned investigative journalist but as,jake will find out things work,differently in japan the police and,yakuza work in tandem to keep a tenuous,veil of peace things like honor and,shame play a much larger factor in,peoples lives than they do in north,america and getting what you want,sometimes means making deals with,notorious gangsters so jake has to,navigate this new world on top of being,a gaijin a japanese term for outsider,its actually a good way to unravel the,story as we many of us outsiders to,japanese culture experience the,narrative mainly through his eyes to,make matters more difficult 1999s tokyo,is one in which jake and his boss amy,must navigate a world of racism and,misogyny although amy is a colleague,because she is a woman she is expected,to pour drinks for the men at business,functions she must repeatedly fend off,mens advances and stays at work longer,to prove that she has what it takes to,compete with the men jake straight up,was almost fired day one for just being,white and all of this can be frustrating,amy and jake find out several police,forces werent following up on sexual,assault cases and when they brought,forward the story it was buried in the,back of the paper even though it seems,all their work was meaningless amy says,it is but one brick in a wall of,information that one day cannot be,ignored someone has to build a wall of,information story by story until the,facts cannot be ignored and then things,have to change its this persistence in,the face of adversity that endears us to,many of these characters sams ambitions,are closely related to taking back,control of her own life they started,when she moved away from her controlling,mormon father to become a missionary in,japan eventually stealing 40 000 worth,of yen from a local mission fund to run,away and start a new life as a hostess,in tokyo there she finds herself under,the control of a new man duke who runs,the onix nightclub but sam wants to one,day run her own club the end of season 1,caesar making a deal with hitoshi ashida,the leader of the chaharikai clan of the,yakuza sam really had no other choice,all the money she was saving was stolen,and no bank would give her a loan to,allow her to make the final payment on,her new club by going into business with,the yakuza it sets up a lot of mess for,season 2 especially considering sato her,former lover will be the liaison between,her and the gang and sato i found to be,the most intriguing character on the,show over the span of eight episodes he,goes from low-level yakuza initiate to,one of ashidas trusted advisors this,was largely in part to sato saving,yashidas life from assassins in episode,5. sato more than any other character,encompasses the theme of choice because,he wasnt really given the choice of,what type of life hed have as a,youngster he holds the ability to choose,in high esteem this is why he gives the,character koji who he sees a lot of,himself in the choice to leave the gang,even giving him a stack of bills to go,back to his uncle and not take the path,he went down a path that has led him to,murder sato also sees himself as a,protector he protects koji by letting,him go and sam from the man threatening,to turn her back into her parents with,him now in charge of sams new club it,could put him in a precarious situation,does his loyalty lie with the yakuza or,the woman he loves at the end of the,season he is brutally stabbed by fellow,chaharikai member jen the same one he,beat the crap out of in episode 3. i,really hope this isnt the end for sato,i think his journey is far from over and,that hes one of the most interesting,characters on the show but the main,thread at the end of the season revolves,around sams missing friend paulina and,the yakuza running a sex slave ship,called the yoshino throughout the season,jake has tried to link the yakuza with,its criminal activity but at almost,every turn he reaches a dead end,literally theres a dead body almost,everywhere he goes jake has even made,dangerous alliances with ishida of the,jihari kai clan to bring down one of the,most notorious yakuza leaders tazawa,just like the mafia has several,quote-unquote families so does the,yakuza have several clans these clans,work together and control various,territories however to zawa knowing,ishida is weak and thinking that hes,outdated in the way he thinks wants to,take control over his territory and risk,a clan war which neither the police or,other yakuza clans want the difference,between tuzaws clan and the jiharikai,is made quite clear tezawa has no moral,code he runs a business that profits off,stealing life insurance policies of,people who commit suicide buys meth from,the north koreans and runs an illegal,sex slave ship as ashida tells jake of,tezawa,is a,virus jake is given a tip for mashida,that one of tezawas drug planes is on,its way but when they go to investigate,it its empty but little does jake know,that his friend in the police jin,miyamoto has been working with tazawa,katagiri will soon uncover this,treachery and use miyamoto to entrap,tezawa but tazawa is one step ahead at,the end of season 1 category believes,hes going to uncover a huge drug deal,implicating tuzawa but finds no such,deal instead tazawa himself is there,with a threat stop looking into him or,katagiris family will be killed and,miyamoto likely dead as tezawa says hes,somewhere quote where his conscience,wont be an issue to him or a liability,to me jake is also confronted with a,dilemma at the end of the season his,father who disowned him wants him to,come home and his sister who he adores,is gravely ill will he go back or will,he stay and investigate polinas,disappearance and i think we get our,answer when a mysterious vhs tape,appears with the title yoshino on it is,security camera footage of paulina,working as a sex worker where she is,brutally beaten for not engaging in,sexual acts this is all part of a,supposed deal she made with tozawa clan,for not paying her debts its a bit,unclear but

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Hard Lessons Learned From Tough People: Jake Adelstein at TEDxKyoto 2012

I like that sound thats the sound of,the end of zazen or the beginning as I,was in when youre supposed to meditate,and give things your full attention I,think that was the most valuable thing I,ever learned as a reporter was to shut,up and listen because Im a very,talkative person so Im gonna be talking,for the next 15 minutes but um its,important to listen the the person who,told me that was detective Sekiguchi,chiaki and what he told me was its very,important to learn to listen if youre,going to be a reporter to know the truth,and you should listen with your ears and,your skin and your nose and your entire,body and everything you have but never,with your eyes are with your mouth which,sounds kind of counterintuitive but it,actually turned out to be very good,advice because most of the time when,were listening to people were not,really listening were distracted were,playing with our iPhones or were,watching the slides in my case weve got,no slides behind me so theres nothing,to watch yet,but were not really into what the,person is saying and learning to listen,is the first thing you need to do as a,reporter because once you learn how to,listen you start getting answers to the,questions you want so what Im going to,talk about today are the things that,Ive learned as a reporter I have been a,reporter in Japan since 1993 since 1994,I was assigned to cover the Organized,Crime Control Division and Saitama,Prefecture which means that I had to,cover the Yakuza in Kansai they called,them Goku doll the police called them Bo,do guidon you can call them thugs you,can call them whatever you like,they called themselves in code anti,humanitarian organizations the police,that arrests them and kicked their butts,are called Madhubala kg or so co unka,theres a lot of names for them so what,Id like to talk to you about today are,the things that Ive learned the ideas,that I think are worth sharing from 18,years of dealing with the cops and the,Yakuza basically everything I ever,needed to know I learned in life from,the Yakuza or the cops the busting sheep,I was Seiko Nemoto,which is failure is the foundation of,success we just talked about listening,when youre a newspaper reporter that,one of the things that they teach you is,to write your articles in Reverse,pyramid and why do you do this you do,this so that when the editor is editing,you can cut from the bottom up when,youre running up against the deadline,so you always start with the conclusion,the most important things you have to,say you followed by the supporting,details and then you follow it by,summing up what you just told the person,that you were going to tell them and you,tell it again which is exactly what Im,going to do now here are the seven,things that Ive learned that I think,are worth sharing Ive learned some,things from the Yakuza that our ideas,definitely not worth sharing or if you,ever have a TED talk on ideas that are,threatening they would work the first is,learn to listen learn to listen well and,if you cant hear the spaces or the,silences between someones words then,youre not really listening to them,those were sekiguchi x words and ive,taken them to heart the second one is,honor your debts have a code live up to,it everythings good there are no small,promises every promise is as important,as a mans life its okay to be betrayed,but you never want to be the betrayer,the enemy of my enemy is my friend a man,without any enemies is probably a,worthless man in life we only encounter,the injustice as we were meant to,correct and finally if you want to live,well you need to die once so well go,back to the beginning weve already,talked about listening and I see that,youre all listening which is good since,weve hit the main points if you want to,go back to your iPhone be my guest,in the last year I spent a lot of time,talking to yahooza an ex Yakuza and Ive,been impressed that some of these guys,have a tremendous sense of inner peace,and calm that you wouldnt expect from a,criminal so I asked one of the bosses,who seemed to be the most at home with,himself you know why are you so calm,youre kind of like a Buddha and he said,no you know giddy Otto stay over there,mom what about so between you Shh,which is you know I pay my debts I,followed my code and everything is good,with me if you ask yourself where does,your sense of self-worth come from I,think wed all have different answers,some people would answer its how I look,how much money I have its my job its,my position when youre talking about,intrinsic values what youre really,talking is about do you have a code do,you have a code of honor that you live,up to and if you live up to that and,youre true to it is that something that,gives you inner peace and while Im not,a fan of the Yakuza and I certainly,dont want to say good things about them,there are some of them that actually do,live up to their code of honor as as,limited as it may be and they seem at,peace with themselves not many people,know it but the actors are do have a,code at least they used to the yuccas in,Japan for those of you who arent,familiar with them are very public they,still have office buildings they still,have business cards they still have fan,magazines they still gonna have comic,books about these guys so theyre pretty,much out in the open and you have to,wonder why it is Japanese society,tolerate these people because theyve,been around since the Second World War,since a in Kyoto since 1870 Isaac Oh Ted,Skye is one of the oldest organized,crime groups around one of the reasons,theyre tolerated is that they used to,keep a sort of bare minimum code of,ethics and those are the ones that,behind me what were the code of ethics,at the ecers I had they were dont steal,dont rob no sexual assault no using or,selling drugs and nothing in this,contrary to the humanitarian way the,humanitarian way has always been poorly,defined you also notice that amongst,those things that are forbidden,extortion and blackmail are not included,and if you ask us our boss,extortion and blackmail are acceptable,hell tell you its because if youre,doing something so bad that youre being,backed by blackmail by the Yakuza you,probably deserve the punishment youre,getting so were imposing a social fine,on these people and and making society a,better place its kind of hard to argue,with that I will say that the opposite,for the most part are a pestilence on,Japanese society theyre not a force for,good but in the days when they were,upholding some sort of code of honor at,least they were contributing to the,peace in some senses its not that way,did now I once was supposed to visit a,Yakuza boss since in Omiya in 1995,koneko inelia hes since passed away in,a sumiyoshi-kai i showed up at his,office at 7:25 and i was supposed to be,there at 7 oclock so I showed up and he,was furious and he was like you broke,your promise you were supposed to be,here at 7 oclock youre here at 7:25,Im like Im sorry I was busy and hes,like thats not good enough you know you,broke your promise you said that you,would be here at 7 p.m. and youre here,at 7:25 go home and I was like whats,your problem I mean its its Im late,but you know it was a small promise and,he said to me there are no small,promises said in our world and if youre,going to be part of it you have to,understand that a mans worth is his,word if you cant keep your word then,youre worthless,Im a Yakuza this is what he said and,sometimes we go to war we go to war over,stupid things quarrels money turf and if,were going to go to war lets say were,gonna go head-to-head with the Nakano,chi and my man is supposed to be in his,place at 7 oclock and hes not there,that means that someone is gonna have to,go in alone and as they go in alone they,may get killed or we may have to scrub,the entire thing but everything is,ruined because one person didnt show up,on time in this world in the world of,cops in the world of journalists in the,world of the Yakuza you build trust by,keeping your

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Tokyo Vice | 2022 | Review | The Return of Michael Mann!

[Laughter],tokyo vice is a 2022 hbo show one of,three ive had my eye on recently the,other two being we own this city from,the creator of the wire and the offer,which chronicles the making of francis,ford coppola as the godfather it stars,ensel elgort ken watanabe and rachel,keller tokyo vice is based on journalist,jake adelsteins non-fiction first-hand,account of the tokyo metropolitan police,and the underworld it follows a white,journalist a stranger in a strange land,as he works for a publication in tokyo,and ends up going after one of the,citys most powerful crime bosses,it comes with the promise of a gritty,but stylish exploration of tokyos,underworld and the yakuza a particular,organized crime syndicate that i think,has been pretty underused in western,movies and shows so i was looking,forward to this it first came to my,attention because michael mann the,legendary director of heat the insider,collateral and last of the mohicans was,attached to it he ended up only,directing the pilot but the shows name,obviously riffs of miami vice which he,was a big part of now i dont want to go,off on a tangent with this ron but,the first episode is full of mans,mannerisms so to speak and i mean modern,michael mann the director of black heart,and public enemies not classic michael,mann director of heat and manhunter so,if youre familiar with his style after,he fell in love with digital cameras you,know the drill bizarre unorthodox camera,angles handheld camera work often right,up close to the actors and focusing on,random things music slapped all over,making you a bit unsure of what the tone,is supposed to be it isnt particularly,noteworthy but the reason i mention it,is because after the first episode this,season settles into its own rhythm and,style and episode two is where the show,actually gets his opening credits not,the first episode so mans episode feels,pretty detached especially with its,style and it does make you wonder what,was even the point of getting him to,direct the pilot if hes going to be,wildly unconnected to everything that,comes after it seems to be a gimmick at,this point martian scorsese with,boardwalk empire comes to mind of a big,name director attracting attention to a,new series by directing the first,episode and then staying on with some,vague executive producer job description,and isnt it harder to direct the first,episode of a show where you have to,introduce characters set up the plot etc,etc why not give man the last episode or,one somewhere in the middle,anyway coming back to the show itself,there are pretty much three main,characters each of whose stories become,interconnected,jake is a reporter looking for a good,scoop and he develops professional,relationships with cops and with,criminals who he looks to use for good,stories and who in turn they try to use,him to make their enemies lives a bit,more miserable he is our moral anchor a,bit of an but endearing enough,and his investigations lead him to,becoming entangled with gangsters,murderers and bizarre suicides,theres a white girl samantha who is,something of a singer and escort but not,sexual escort as a club who has,ambitions to start her own thing and she,develops a relationship with jake but,more so with a yakuza novice called sato,who is our third principal character and,who we follow as he rises through the,ranks until he becomes trusted enough to,be working directly for the boss of his,clan,ken watanabe plays a cop who slowly,becomes more and more of a key player,until the police become more substantial,characters he first comes off as pretty,shady but its quickly established that,the police must deal with the yakuza and,he essentially attempts to keep,bloodshed to a minimum by maintaining,the status quo in the underworld so you,have the journalist the woman the yakuza,and the cop,the very best thing about tokyo vice,something that really sticks out is the,sense of authenticity im not japanese,nor am i knowledgeable in japanese,culture so i might be talking absolute,rubbish but it really feels like you,have been transported to tokyo nothing,feels like a stage or film set it all,feels very real then theres the,characterization of the characters the,fact that most of the time people are,speaking japanese instead of the show,pandering to western audiences the fact,that the main character is often,subjected to casual racism which he has,no choice but to endure it doesnt feel,like those movies where they,insert chinese characters and take the,story to the east to please the chinese,market if anything tokyo advice feels,like a criticism of the way things are,in japan and very quickly jake is,overcome with a feeling of hopelessness,that nothing can change and the,bureaucracies are all corrupt,with that being said my overall thoughts,on tokyo advice is that it has issues,but there is potential for greatness,here some of the less than great factors,include when the japanese actors are,speaking english it just takes a few,episodes to get used to as it often,sounds weird like theres lip syncing,going on or some of the cast are,reciting their lines phonetically thats,what it kind of sounds like it makes it,a bit awkward to stay immersed sometimes,because you know a scene is being played,seriously but the way some of the,dialogue is spoken suggests far from it,the acting for the most part is so so,anyway i thought elgot and watanabe were,good as were many of the other cast,members but a few individuals let the,side down i wasnt particularly,impressed with the actress who played,samantha something about her just,screams be great actor and i fell to see,what kind of charms she had of the likes,of sato which was essential to the story,in fact her entire storyline with her,hanging around the club entertaining,guests getting into a dull romantic,relationship with sato it was all pretty,boring and i could really have done,without it the entire first half of the,show is just a bit dullery both because,of uninteresting plot lines and because,it all feels a bit clunky and disjointed,with all the different elements being,explored but not quite coming together,at times it feels like the show doesnt,know what it wants to be the escapades,of a young woman whos run away from,home an analysis on police corruption,and the integrity of journalism a,hard-boiled gangster drama or a number,of other things theres eight episodes,and episode five is when it starts to,get good when it really picks up,suddenly things start to synchronize and,the show dips deeper into the cop drama,and the yakuza and all of a sudden the,good elements kick in and the gears,start turning,tokyo vice very much feels like the,setup for a show that will last for,several seasons if successful its a,good setup for a new season you can feel,all the chess pieces being put into,place for a show in which a journalist,and honest cop looked to take on the,tokyo underworld i mean its,disappointing that the first season,didnt do that i thought that was the,entire promise but the show is finding,its feet and perhaps it will be one to,watch after a few more seasons have been,released,it definitely needs a second season as,it feels a bit unfinished and the flash,forward opening scene of the season,doesnt even happen,but many great shows like breaking bad,had clunky or difficult first seasons if,they played their cards right this could,be a great slice of television it really,was a slow start i was at a stage where,i was regretting watching it only really,going through with it because i thought,my subscribers would be interested in a,review but somehow it managed to amble,its way across the finish line left me,in anticipation of what is to come and,ultimately gets a thumbs up from me,theres a surprising amount of solid,character development for minor side,characters too so it makes me hopeful as,clearly theres decent writers in the,writing room they just need to sort,their feet out theres good stuff in,here and then theres the fact that wit

Tokyo Vice author joins Lateline

for 12 years American Jake Adelstein,works the crime beat for one of Japans,most prestigious newspapers the,amelioration boom a fluent speaker and,writer of Japanese the job basically,took over his life exposing him to,Japans disturbing underworld its,violent organized crime networks the,abuse of women in the sex districts even,human trafficking the Yakuza threatened,his life when he broke a story that a,notorious Japanese gangster had turned,informant to the FBI in exchange for a,liver transplant in an America in an,American Hospital Jake Adelstein has,written about his experiences in a book,called Tokyo box and hes in Australia,for the Melbourne and Brisbane riders,festivals he joined me from Brisbane a,short time ago Jake Adelstein thank you,for joining us thank you for having me,how did you come to find yourself a,reporter in Japan working on one of the,most prestigious Japanese language,newspapers ah well I went to university,of Sofia University in Tokyo as an,exchange student I transferred there and,then I passed the examination to become,a newspaper reporter at the newspaper,thats how they hire I dont know how,ABC hires reporters but in Japan,everybody takes a test did you do well,on the tests you go to the interview if,you pass the interviews you get a job as,a reporter and they immediately put you,on the police beat which is where I,started and why did I start you on the,police bait because i think that the,japanese believe thats the basics of,reporting its who did what to whom when,where and then finally if you have time,why the why is the is the non essential,part of the story as far as japanese are,concerned thats the last thing its the,first thing thats going to be cut if,theres not enough space in the,newspaper one of the interesting things,that left out at me was the fact that in,Japan reporters would show up at their,contact houses in the evening bearing,gifts in the hopes that you might be,able to get some information oh yeah,yeah yeah I mean we will come very,friendly with the cops and that is part,of the your Marty the evening rounds is,when you go to the officers homes you,wait for them to come back and if they,like you you go into the house and you,have a couple drinks with them and while,youre pretending to be drunk then they,might leak a morsel of information to,you but that you know the pretext is,we were both drunk and if I said,anything to you about it a case that,were working on I dont remember it and,of course you cant take notes when,youre talking to the cops I mean that,would be a tab that would be breaking,the the unwritten rule that youre not,really actually sharing information you,also had a lot to do with the criminals,explain for people who exactly are the,Yakuza and how pervasive are they in,every day Japanese live okay one thing I,should explain about the Aqua say is,that they are not a hidden society in,Japan theyre very open there are 80,000,Yakuza members in in all of Japan and a,total the Japanese government recognizes,them as groups and designates them a,designated 22 of them is special,organized crime groups and keeps tabs on,them and regulates them but they dont,ban them so for example this is a Yakuza,fan magazine it comes out every month,there about five different ones of them,and on the cover is the head of Japans,largest organized crime group if you,open the magazine up you can see,pictures of succession ceremonies and,other Yakuza bosses these are the top,mafia bosses in Japan of the,yamaguchi-gumi they are ruling over,40,000 people its not very secretive of,course people also send in their own,photos of you know their tattoos other,Yakuza members and they always have they,always have a section to about foreign,crime because one of the things the,actors are due to justify their,existences are always claiming that you,know if it wasnt us that Japan would be,taken over by evil foreigners like,myself and therefore theyre serving a,valuable function so you break a very,big story that a Japanese chron Lord who,traveled to the US for a liver,transplant tell us about that gordo,tommasi who is not a long who was kicked,out of the Yakuza in two thousand and,and nine are actually was a 2008 time,goes by so quickly he was one of the,most powerful mob bosses in Japan and he,made a deal with the with the FBI in,which he gave up the names of members of,his organization and the financial,institutions they were using the United,States the launder money in exchange for,visa to get entrance into UCLA where he,got a liver transplant as did three,other Yakuza under very mysterious,circumstances because they were all at,the bottom of the list and suddenly,after a few huge cash donations to,university of california los angeles,they suddenly got themselves new livers,how did the Yakusa react to you digging,around on that matter this one boss put,a contract out on me and actually we,still really hate each other even though,hes become a Buddhist priest he,published his memoirs this year in which,if you understand the alcázar yes two,lines which were basically along the,lines of you know if you see this,reporter and you want to take him out I,would be very happy so its not a very,cordial relationship in the long run if,you read the book it goes into greater,detail it sort of became a question is,who could I playoff in his organization,that that would would rather see him out,and exposed than me dead so you know,theres a certain amount of yonkers of,politics involved there and do you feel,10 sorry you going what one thing thats,interesting about this that the relates,to Australia is that go to made this,deal with the FBI and he promised to,give them all the names of the aquas,members which the FBI wanted because,Japans police agencies will not share,that information with the United States,or Australia because of concerns about,privacy for Japans indigenous mafia,members the head of the ena Golic I,which is the third largest organized,crime group in Japan tried to get in the,United States to get a liver transplant,UCLA but because go to ahead betrayed,the FBI they wouldnt let them in,he came to Australia in 2002 and got his,liver transplant here Ill show you used,to be one of the the top spots for,Yakuza boss is to get the liver,transplants I dont know if theyre,doing it here anymore are there many,links that you know of between Japanese,organized crime and Australia oh just in,property in real estate I mean they like,the Gold Coast they like to buy property,here Australia is one of the countries,where yeah Chris does seem to have any,an easy time getting in and out of and,in that sense you know its kind of a,vacation paradise for them and you,mentioned let me ask you and you do,explain it in the book why is there such,a preponderance of liver transplants,Yakuza tend to be especially the younger,days drug users especially,methamphetamines and and in the old days,after the Second World War a lot of them,were using dirty needles and got,hepatitis C also the tattoos like you,can see on the cover of this book and,the back of this book see one of the,things they tend to do is get these full,body tattoos which marked them as,members of the Yakuza and the tattoos,themselves a carcinogenic and they,prevent your skin from sweating so it,puts another layer of stress on the,liver its the number one cause of death,for yak for Yakuza members is liver,problems and after that is being shot or,stabbed to death there was another link,to Australia in your book which was that,you received a tip-off from actually an,Australian woman who was working in,Tokyo and youd spent quite a bit of,time nosing around in sex clubs for,various investigations and this woman,gave you a tip-off that there was a lot,of human trafficking going on tell us a,little bit about what you learnt there I,met this woman named hellena when I was,working on Lucy Blackman story Lucy,Blackman was a British stewardess who,disappeared in Tokyo and and it was,probably killed by a J

Tokyo Vice: Season 1 – TV Review

[Music],all episodes of season 1 of tokyo vice,are now streaming on hbo max and this is,a show that i have been following for a,few weeks now i dont know how many,people are talking about this show i,dont know how many people are going to,review this show but i was very,interested in seeing it for a couple of,reasons but well get more into that in,a bit this follows loosely the true life,events which were recounted in the,memoir by jake adelstein in this one,hes played by ansel elgort and you,essentially follow how hes trying to,find out a lot about a situation going,down with the yakuza clans theyre,warring against each other for reasons,that seem to be a bit mysterious at the,time and hes trying to work with other,journalists as well as police officers,and trying to figure this out and thats,essentially the entire story as he,starts off however hes the first white,reporter at the meijo in japan and so,thats a bit of a confusing thing for,some people its like hey when do they,hire foreign reporters now and so that,is also an interesting angle and theres,a bunch of other side plots going on,which have some of them im definitely,sure have been added in there because,you want to create somewhat of a tv show,around it i actually thought this was,going to be a limited series at first,however a minor spoiler warning you get,to the end of the season and theyve,clearly set up for a season too so,theres a lot more to the story yet to,be told and clearly it sets up a lot,more to come i was interested however,for a couple of reasons for one i heard,michael mann was attached to this now,michael mann is kind of a legend when it,comes to directing and you know when you,have,vice attached to it especially when you,look at stuff like miami vice or even of,course heat for instance,obviously im very interested in seeing,what he would bring to it and i heard,that he was also directing some of it he,only directed episode one though but it,doesnt matter because episode one hooks,you from the start,you are invested in this story thats,happening its very fast paced its kind,of intriguing and as you start to see,the stuff thats going down in japan and,they constantly tell you that certain,things are just being sort of scuffed,away like hey thats just a thing that,just happens here we dont really report,on it theyre constantly invested in why,thats the case and what else is going,on underneath the surface as the,episodes progress theyre not quite as,stylishly directed but make no mistake,theyre as stylish to look at this is a,gorgeous looking show the cinematography,is incredible lots of neon soaked,backgrounds i mean they really invested,in the budget for this thing on location,and you see some really great sites as a,result of it there was really,not a shot in this that really bothered,me its all very very well filmed and it,has a gorgeous score which is,accompanying it as well a lot of,emphasis on japanese language and this,scripting as well which makes sense,because this takes place you know,entirely in japan but i liked how much,there was even the characters who are,not japanese like elgorts character,like adelstein hes speaking japanese,fluently the first episode is about him,taking a test to basically end up,becoming a reporter and taking on those,jobs and its really well handled as far,as the performances go i think ansel,argo is good he does a good job,however i found him to be,the least interesting character of the,entire thing like hes not bad in the,role its just that the subplots and the,other stuff that is going on especially,involving the yakuza all that stuff is,so much more interesting that whenever,it cut back to the journalism angle of,it i was like yeah okay thats also nice,but i kind of want to go back to whats,going on with these two warring clans,because this seems like the most,interesting thing the stuff between the,chihara kai and the ozawa clan like,thats thats where the stuff uh you,know the show really is uh flourishing,and all of that was really great ken,watanabe though he plays a detective and,who is really really great and the stuff,with him katagiri thats his name thats,fantastic like he was the most,interesting character in a lot of ways,however the most interesting character,is one of the yakuzas names sato like,hes fantastic in this im sorry if im,slipping on the actors name at the,moment but he was outstanding and,theres an entire arc with him that you,get that is really really affecting and,you really get invested in his arc as,the show goes on also it was nice seeing,my girl rinku kikuchi in this i really,love her as an actress and she was,really cool in here too and you get a,lot more with her as the episodes,progressed so that was nice to see i,always think she has a very charismatic,screen presence to bring to things and,im just glad that shes given stuff,here to do i have still not gotten over,just how badly they went from,first pacific rim to second pacific rim,in terms of her character do you,remember there was a second pacific rim,just curious one thing i also really,liked about this show was how it,portrayed the desperation that exists,within every character because each one,of them is trying to get something each,one of them is trying to go through all,kinds of hoops and fences to get that,thing and even if its the most,incorruptible of characters or the,nicest of characters each one of them is,gonna have to do things that are not,necessarily the nicest but the,desperation also extends to people who,are not on the better side of the law,and when you see those characters,maybe in one scene theyll do something,like brutally murder someone but in the,next scene you see that weight that is,bearing down on them in terms of this,profession i speak specifically here to,the yakuza side of things the show,portrays that very nicely its not like,sopranos level something where its like,oh this is the mafia but youre still,kind of hoping that no one gets the,bullet but its,somewhat working on those same levels,like youre youre kind of invested in,each arc which is something which is,very commendable like its hard to look,at something like the yakuza and say oh,yeah i fully understand what you guys,are going through right now um and it is,a well-executed thing which goes back to,the point i made about how its the more,interesting of the two plots especially,revolving around the um,uh the investigative journalism side of,it i really liked a lot of that and as i,said it hooks you from the first episode,and you are invested in it like,throughout all the way till the end,however like i said its got its issues,here and there like i said its not,always the most,interesting especially when it comes to,the investigative journalism side of it,until a little bit later eventually when,you start to sort of,mess up and theres like certain issues,that come along the way of this i found,it to be a lot more interesting because,up until that point it was like all,right thats a thing too,but when those plots started to merge,together a lot more,i was much more invested in it and the,final few episodes were really like i,couldnt stop watching it theyre very,rivetingly made and i was enjoying,myself does it sometimes get a little,lost and trying to tell some other,stories while also trying to tell,something else sure sometimes theres a,little,scatter brain stuff going on here and,there but it mostly manages to stay,consistent and like i said it is,constantly interesting theres never a,point in it where i thought well im,checking my watch i want this episode to,get over never like that i was,constantly,involved in this entire world and im,looking forward to seeing more of it if,they do make a season two which im sure,they will um i have to say as far as hbo,max shows goes this this one is probably,the biggest one that ive seen like,especially into hbo max originals,because i guess peacemaker yes but,like you can clearly tell the money is,on the screen over h

How Ansel Elgort Learned Japanese For Tokyo Vice

firstly ansel welcome me through having,to learn japanese for this project,no it was such a cool thing to have to,do you know a great challenge,um luckily got to work with michael mann,so,he he loves to work people so much and,he wants it to you know he works really,hard himself i think hes up at 6am,going to sleep at midnight,never stops working so initially he,recommended that i study japanese nine,hours a day,um and alan poole,what diffic was most difficult in uh in,the world of a language in japanese,it was pretty difficult but luckily you,know i would go and,like for example ken invited me to his,house and karu,karuizawa,and i would try to speak to him in,japanese and he would answer me in,english just kind of like our characters,in the show,and i always wanted to practice as much,as possible um,and,you know being in japan and being in,tokyo it was very immersive experience,so,at the same time,those that nine hours a day of japanese,turned into four hours a day which was,still pretty good and then when i wasnt,in class i was around a lot of japanese,people and trying to speak as much as i,could even making mistakes but,and also learning the lines,um you know that was great because,sometimes i would i would learn lines,like uh tobacco suit,can i smoke you know then i remember,going to a bar and saying so smoothly,you know what i mean thinking i was so,cool because i had my lines memorized,and they thought i was better than i was,and then they would speak to me in,regular japanese and i couldnt really,speak you know but,little by little ive been you know,getting better at japanese,and its been a great challenge and,i realized it was important for the role,because i wanted to have a little more,freedom when i was acting,and thats great and its really cool,how it reflects your actual characters,and the plot of the show like thats,thats really cool have you since been,able to impress anyone with your skills,speaking japanese like you know ordering,food like back at uh back in america uh,surprising anyone with your fluency,i always try but for example i went to a,japanese uh um teriyaki,chicken restaurant and i tried to say uh,go to samadeshta which is thank you for,the food and they said oh sorry were,korean,so,everywhere i go i try to speak japanese,and,not nobody is japanese so i have to go,back to japan,thats thats too funny,uh ken were you impressed,with how fluent he became,uh,you know just,we also have uh,relationship is very sensitive,you know beginning i didnt trust him,what am i doing,in the underground with a carp or some,something then,story by story episode by episode,we have uh,closer to,distance,to finally as a bond of connecting,then,and i will uh,its the first at first,uh,i could not,teach,anything but,i,receive about the passion of a jake,then,i will teach,about something underground feelings and,a scary,situation and cops feelings or something,and then,finally yeah we could we could have a,good relationship,yeah,thats great and the real unbelievable,part of this whole project is that its,based on a true story,have you either you met the real jake,yeah,twice,uh he,he came to set twice and then i asked it,about uh,how,could you take a relationship with them,and then uh,what is uh what is the,cops feeling or something and then,cop,has a good family,and then a,good faces face of the husband and,father,and then,gentle and speaking a really soft,voice or something but,approach to the gangs is so strictly,strong and scary and then,uh its a real detective,and then,its,uh we change kind of double faces,then,uh,maybe same thing to approach to the jake,and the first time to meet him and just,really keep the distance and strong and,the mysterious,uh,but,time by time to,open open mind,and then,[Music],its a take a great a good relationship,and the friendship yeah thats amazing,ansel did he have any advice uh,for playing him and was there a part of,his story that i mean there are some,crazy parts of it obviously was there,something uh in particular that really,got you excited to take on this role,um,well,okay first about jake,yeah it was,he,took me along with him while he,investigated this story about there was,a father,who had murdered his son,and that was just the report now that,that day he wanted to write about it so,uh there and it was going to trial and,there was going to be a verdict that day,so he in in true jake style he had no,credentials he wasnt even technically,writing for any paper but he just we,just kind of walked into this place,he snuck us in as far as we could go,talked oan which is so jake,and then we we couldnt get into the,courtroom though so he waited her ass i,said dont worry we wait outside the,courtroom well stand next to the other,reporters,and when the verdict comes out this see,that woman right there shes a tv,reporter so when the verdict comes out,theyre gonna run over to her and tell,her the verdict and well know it you,know 20 seconds after everyone else,knows it so we dont even need to be in,there no problem and he starts just,listening in writing taking down notes,then he sneaks us into some other room,where the jurors are in there and they,interviewed the jurors,and,it was like so jake first of all it was,great just learn you know seeing how you,could you know just reporting on crime,but also seeing how this is how jake,adelson did it hes breaking all the,rules he is doing it his own way but,hes still getting it done um so,i took that for for my character,of you know im playing this guy who,does not always follow the rules,but hes going for truth and justice,um and,uh yeah but to follow to answer your,other question,for me you know tokyo vice the main,thing was just tokyo,i just knew i wanted to do something in,tokyo because,visually the city is so its such a,great character that no matter what,thats that element is going to be great,um then i read the book and i thought,wow what a interesting funny,uh shocking and and uh unexpected like i,didnt realize you know,its such a different world,japan from america,the way that things are done are,different and,as an audience member you know as a,reader of the book and then when people,watch the show theyre going to find,that very interesting,and then on top and then the last thing,was,michael mann and ken watanabe of course,so to be able to work with these legends,um was,just like okay this is going to be a,great project,[Music],you