Thursday brings the much anticipated premiere of celebrated director Michael Mann’s latest series, “Tokyo Vice.” The first three episodes will debut on HBO Max this week, with pairs of episodes dropping every Thursday after that until the finale on April 28. The series, filmed on location in Tokyo, is inspired by the memoir by Jake Adelstein, “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan,” with Ansel Elgort starring as Adelstein. Mann directed the pilot episode and serves as an executive producer on the project, which was created by acclaimed playwright J.T. Rogers.
This gritty crime drama set in the late '90s follows Adelstein as a cub reporter at one of Japan’s largest newspapers, and his dangerous journey investigating one of the largest yakuza crime bosses in Tokyo. Ken Watanabe co-stars as a sympathetic cop, as Jake tries to navigate through the bureaucracy of his newspaper (Rinko Kikuchi plays his stern editor) and the crime culture of Tokyo’s underbelly.
Though Mann is predominantly known for his film work, this isn’t the first time he’s tackled a series. He famously produced the groundbreaking 1980s crime series “Miami Vice” (streaming on Peacock) and collaborated with David Milch on the horse racing series “Luck,” starring Dustin Hoffman (streaming on HBO Max). His cult TV series “Robbery Homicide Division,” starring Tom Sizemore, took place in the LAPD division of the same name, but the only place to watch that is currently for free is on YouTube.
