Tokyo Vice on HBO/Max

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A friend has been recommending this series to me for some time, but I hesitated because of the subtitles. I finally started watching this past week, and I couldn't stop watching. The pace, suspense, and production value reminds me of The Wire meets The Sopranos.

It's a 2-season series, starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe. Michael Mann directed a few episodes, and he's also Executive Producer. The story is based on Jake Adelstein's 2009 memoir. Elgort plays Adelstein, a young Jewish American journalist who gets a job with Tokyo's largest newspaper. Ansel learned to speak fluent Japanese for the roll. He is amazing. Without giving too much away, Adelstein ends up joining forces with Tokyo police detective Katagiri, played by Watanabe, as they go after Tokyo's Mafia Yakuza.

The show is superbly cast from top to bottom. Many characters get a wonderful arch in the story. There are even gay characters, sort of working on the down low. It's a fascinating look at how ex-pats mingle and work with the locals.

There is some nudity, but not much. Elgort shows off his lovely shirtless torso at times, but nothing more than that. Several of the Japanese actors show some serious ass and lots of tattoo work. In season 2, there is a 5-minute bathhouse scene where all the actors are naked. It ends up being an action scene, and it's a miracle no one was captured full frontal. I tried to take some screenshots, but Max doesn't allow it.

The story is less about sex and more about hard work, crime and power plays, all within Japan's system of traditions. It's really well done, with an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The show had the potential to grow, but the creators decided to end it after the 2nd season. I'm sure it cost a fortune to produce. It struggled to find a large audience in America, and I'm sure the subtitles were a problem. I had to stop and rewind on several occasions in order to avoid missing any details.

I may have to watch it again, it was that good.

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Actor Ayumi Tanida is scary as all hell in this series. His ass garnered quite a bit of internet buzz. He gets naked quite often.

This is a scene from the bathhouse. The nude guy standing is another bad ass. In the series, he is quite the bad-ass sexy boy. I found him kinda hot.

 

 

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Here is a page of other nude stills from the series. There is also a video of the bathhouse scene that I described above.

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