Tokyo Vice, the 2009 book by journalist Jake Adelstein, who worked in Japan as a crime reporter for the country’s largest newspaper, is finally coming to screens. The book details Adelstein’s work for The Yomiuri Shimbun, where he was on staff from 1993 to 2005—and is believed to be the first American to hold such a position. During that time, Adelstein reported on the criminal activity of the yakuza, a syndicate at the time bigger than the New York Mafia.
Originally, Adelstein’s story was going to become a film. It was instead developed for television and given an eight-episode run for HBO Max, where it will air weekly beginning on April 7.
The series is a long time coming, with initial filming having begun in Japan in 2020. The production was then forced to shut down for eight months during the pandemic, after which time director Michael Mann returned to Tokyo to finish filming the pilot.
Mann (Miami Vice, Heat) only directs the first episode, however, a decision reflected in the disperate filmmaking styles seen from Episode 1 to Episode 2. Viewers will be able to watch the first three episodes at once, making the distinction between Mann’s approach and the remainder of the series somewhat jarring; while Mann’s episode remains consistent with his previous preference for digital cameras and wide-angle lenses (what lends his films a “documentary style,” due to the seeming proximity of people and objects to the camera), later episodes will feel more like conventional television with more standard camera movement and dialogue direction.
Because of these disparate approaches, one might feel as though they are watching two very different versions of the same series, where Episode 1 stands alone.
The story, too, seems to drag into the conventional in later episodes, as it strays farther from Adelstein’s book. The series only loosely follows Adelstein’s real-life investigation into the yakuza, and in a recent interview for The New York Times, showrunner J.T. Rogers explained that the series is mostly dramatized. “Tokyo Vice is not biography, nor documentary,” he said. “It’s inspired by real events, but it’s fiction.”
The result, however, is still a unique take on modern true crime television—if only for its bilingual dialogue and (at least in the first episode) its sobering depiction of newspaper crime reporting, which is not as fast and sexy as the now-standard approach to the true crime genre.
Anyway, here’s when we’ll get to see Episode 4 and the rest of the series.
Here’s the complete release schedule for Tokyo Vice:
Tokyo Vice will air on HBO Max every Thursday, following a 3, 2, 2, 1 episode release.
Episode 1: April 7
Episode 2: April 7
Episode 3: April 7
Episode 4: April 14
Episode 5: April 14
Episode 6: April 21
Episode 7: April 21
Episode 8: April 28
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