The Dark True Story Thriller Series On Max Gets Even Better With New Season

Ben Travers from IndieWire says, “We’re drawn into their world slowly, steadily, and completely, until — like the compulsive characters — it’s impossible to imagine being on the outside again.

Tokyo Vice is a series adaptation of Jake Adelstein’s 2009 book of the same name. The book chronicles his time as a crime writer for a well-known Japanese publication, Yomiuri Shimbun. 

He tells the story of how he struggled to get his foot in the door as a foreigner in the industry and how his mentor, Sekiguchi (an older, more distinguished detective) helped guide him through the dark, behind-the-scenes world of Tokyo and the Yakuza. 

Tokyo Vice presents the Yakuza as the equivalent of the Tokyo mafia. The yakuza are a strictly disciplined group with a detailed code of conduct.

They are very territorial and take part in some unconventional ritual practices, like yubitsume, which is the amputation of the left little finger.

Yakuza are sophisticated and well-dressed and often are portrayed as men with heavily tattooed bodies. 

Tokyo Vice is a memoir that covers Adelstein’s experiences as a crime reporter over a span of 12 years and describes long work hours, tricky relationships, and challenging interactions he witnessed along the way between the paper’s crime reporters and the police. 

Over his time as a writer in Japan, Adelstein had his hand in some extremely sensitive cases, one being that he was responsible for uncovering the secret that Saitama Prefecture (part of the greater Tokyo area) was altering scientific data on dioxin contamination. 

When he tried to publish Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, he was unsuccessful in finding a publisher who had the guts to do it.

One publisher backed out of the deal after initial talks, because they deemed the situation too dangerous for their staff and possibly the publishing building. 

Adelstein eventually had to seek out police protection and leave Japan for his own safety. The Japanese don’t take too kindly to whistleblowers. 

After failed talks of a movie adaptation of his book, the realized series adaptation of Tokyo Vice has become quite a hit among viewers. The show has a 92 percent average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is no easy catch these days. 

Tokyo Vice stars Ansel Elgort (as Jake Adelstein), Ken Watanabe (as Hiroto Katagiri), and Rachel Keller (as an American expat living in Tokyo), among others.

You can find season one and the first half of season two of Tokyo Vice now streaming on MAX. Watch Adelstein navigate the dark and dangerous world of the Japanese underground, all the while working hard to uphold the city’s official stance that “murder does not happen in Tokyo.”