Kazuma Kiryu is one of the most important video game characters ever created — a yakuza gangster with a heart of gold that tries to retain his humanity in an increasingly violent world. For two decades, the Yakuza video games have explored Kiryu as a character, giving fans the chance to quite literally see him grow old and tired. It’s so rare to see a video game character’s life explored so thoroughly, and Kiryu has always been the heart of Yakuza, both for his humor and stoic personality. Translating such a beloved character into live action is no small task, and interestingly Prime Video’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza took a different approach, as lead actor Ryoma Takeuchi was asked not to play the games for his portrayal.
“I pay full respect to who he is in the game, but I didn’t want to be that Kiryu,” Takeuchi tells Inverse. “I could just play the game and get the essence of Kiryu extracted, but I wanted to be cautious that does not really confine me from doing what I think is right. I wanted to portray his humanity in the drama. It’s a difficult phrase to translate, but it’s important — Kiryu Kazumi in the game is Kiryu. But me, I’m also Kiryu.”
Like a Dragon: Yakuza takes place in a fictional red-light district of Tokyo, called Kamurocho. The show follows Kiryu and his adopted siblings as they become embroiled in the criminal world of the yakuza, and try to forge lives for themselves while being forced to confront the chaotic city.
The biggest difference between the show and the games is Kiryu’s situation, and the people he has to rely on. A huge theme of the games is nearly everyone important in Kiryu’s life being taken away, and the way that burns self-reliance into him. But in the show, this younger Kiryu hasn’t experienced a lot of loss.
What’s fascinating is how Takeuchi’s performance echoes so much of what makes the video game Kiryu special, despite him not playing the games. To this end, Takeuchi says what he needed to understand the most was his past.
“In this drama, what I value most is his childhood. I needed to understand how he was brought up, and what created who he is today — that weakness he has,” Takeuchi says. “I believe a human being is never born strong, but with strength and weakness. However, in Kamurocho Kiryu had to be a strong person, and I needed to use my imagination and sensory system to understand why it had to be that way.”
It’s an interesting contrast to the Yakuza games, as we only saw brief moments of Kazuma Kiryu’s childhood in the series, with the bulk of the story, outside of Yakuza 0, taking place after he’s become a legendary figure in the criminal underworld. Prime Video’s adaptation fully fleshes out Kiryu’s younger years, splitting the show between two time periods, 1995 and 2005. Interestingly, the show makes a big deal about the passage of time, with the actors having to portray older versions of themselves.
Kiryu is, of course, supposed to be a strapping ideal of a man, a legendary warrior who’s honed his body to the max. But Takeuchi put a bit more thought into that fact and Kiryu’s situation — especially the fact that he spent 10 years in jail.
“Talking about the visual aspect, the Kiryu of 1995 and 2005 are quite opposite in a way,” Takeuchi says. “He spent 10 years in jail, and in jail, you actually lose weight. You’ll be doing training but your muscles will be more lean and packed. I had to lose weight in order to portray that.”
The passage of time is equally reflected in the city of Kamurocho, which is as much a character in the show as the actual people. Everyone living in Kamurocho has been molded by the demands of that harsh life — having to constantly work to survive, and contend with a cutthroat criminal organization that runs nearly everything, with little oversight from the police.
That 10-year gap has also changed the city of Kamurocho. Takeuchi says the show was able to depict that so realistically because the director, Masaharu Take, saw that change happen in real life, with the actual district in Tokyo that Kamurocho is based on.
“He [Masaharu Take] knows the two different eras by heart, and he was trying his best to get that depicted in the set,” Takeuchi says. “However, the drama itself is depicting the humanity and value of family. It only makes sense because it’s taking place in Kamurocho, so the city has to have aspects of beauty, scary things, anxiety, and all kinds of different emotions.”
That saga of Kiryu having to adjust to a world that’s left him behind is at the very core of the Yakuza video games, and that’s always been displayed through both his character and the city of Kamurocho itself. The Like a Dragon TV series might take a different path but it arrives at the same conclusion — the real heart of Sega’s series.
Amazon’s Like a Dragon is a strong entry on its own, but there’s the promise of something even more that could be built, with characters and story clearly set up for a second season. This is abundantly clear in the brewing rivalry between Kiryu and the deranged yakuza Goro Majima (a fan favorite of the games). As it happens, that was also a highlight for Takeuchi himself.
“The way Majima was brought up is totally the opposite of Kiryu,” he said. “There’s no place where we blend together, we’re always in opposition. As an actor, I really enjoyed every moment of that.”
