Tokyo Vice Premiere Early Review

*The following is a spoiler-free review of the first three episodes of Tokyo Vice, premiering this Thursday on HBO Max and Crave.

Those looking for the next bingeable true crime drama may find it with Tokyo Vice, loosely based on the memoir from American journalist Jake Adelstein. Putting a fish-out-of-water and coming-of-age twist on the genre, the premiere only scratches the surface of what looks to be a compelling mystery full of moving parts in the midst of the story at its center. Being just the beginning, perhaps the series hasn’t yet fully harnessed those moving parts in a deep enough way but that’s what it is, a start. Now if the title was of any indication, the series fully embraces its setting therefore get ready for some reading. Now one would be remissed without mentioning the elephant in the room being the star and one of the executive producers of the series, Ansel Elgort, who continues his rebound. To his credit, he makes for an engaging lead alongside Ken Watanabe who each represented opposing yet complementary pillars of the Tokyo crime beat.

As mentioned, Tokyo Vice is a crime drama series that takes place in the late 1990s and early 2000s and follows an ambitious American journalist named Jake Adelstein (Elgort) who moved to Tokyo from Missouri and became the first westerner to work for the most prestigious newspapers in Tokyo. In terms of backstory, Adelstein was thin at least so far. Seemingly estranged from his family, his motivations appeared to come from his midwestern upbringing. While being a foreigner in a completely different country was one thing with its own set of challenges, being a newcomer in the highly-competitive newspaper business was another. That being said, the fact that he was a foreigner entering the newspaper business was certainly held against him thus making striving for acceptance as a journalist more difficult. Fortunately for him, Adelstein had made friends to lean on who were all in the same situation. He also had a potential love interest in the form of an American seedy gentlemen’s club hostess named Samantha (Rachel Keller) who had ambitions of being something more and proved that she could take care of herself. But there was something more to that story.

Adelstein’s western perspective contrasted with his new environment made for an interesting dynamic that resulted in an adjustment period. Starting on the police beat, he learned how differently crime was reported in Tokyo. A young journalist still learning while looking to find his place, he tried his best to play by the rules. However, his principles made it hard for him to give up his investigation into a series of deaths that he believed to be connected by a larger conspiracy that allegedly involved the seedy underworld of Tokyo. Representing that underworld was a charming high-level Yakuza member named Sato (Shô Kasamatsu) who was an interesting character despite the fact that he spent most of his time on the periphery of that underworld, acting as a window. Nevertheless, it was clear that their role would surely increase over the course of Adelstein’s investigation as he dug deeper and risked putting himself in danger. Meanwhile, Detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe), a character whose similar principles also made him an outlier within his own department, led the concurrent police investigation. It was only inevitable as their outlier statuses led them to gravitate towards one another in what was a mutually beneficial relationship. In the end, whatever was going to happen, they were both going to be part of it in some form.

What makes Tokyo Vice work at least so far is the engaging mystery in the midst of Adelstein’s journey. Though the season and the mystery as a whole is only pieces at this point, those pieces are definitely promising. The allure will be seeing how those pieces fit together as the series is constructed in a way that makes it very bingeable which is a testament to the writing. Some of those pieces could use more depth but that could very well come later. On a technical level, the series does an excellent job at bringing the city of Tokyo and its many intricacies to life on the strength of its beautiful cinematography, working to create moments that were at times intimate or overwhelming. What ultimately ties it together was its performances from Elgort and Watanabe as Adelstein and Katagiri. Elgort is a likable and relatable lead in spite of Adelstein’s lack of depth while Watanabe brings gravitas and a commanding presence to Katagiri. Their chemistry creates a strong teacher-student dynamic.

At the end of the day, Tokyo Vice has potential but whether or not it is realized remains to be seen.

still courtesy of HBO Max

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Where to watch Tokyo Vice

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.