The Western Eye in Japan

Over the weekend, I tried some recent, western produced TV series about Japan, Shogun on Disney+/Hulu, and Tokyo Vice on Max (though it's included on Amazon Prime in Japan). I enjoyed both for different reasons. Shogun is a satisfying adventure story while Tokyo Vice is an insightful procedural.

I never watched the old Shogun miniseries with Mifune Toshiro. This new one, like that one, is based on the novel by James Clavell. American couple Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo serve as creators of the new series which was shot in Vancouver, with the exception of a couple of establishing shots in Japan. It stars Hiroyuki Sanada, whom you might remember from the recent John Wick movie. I think he's replaced Ken Watanabe as the biggest Japanese star in Hollywood. The series is mainly told, though, through the point of view of an Englishman called John Blackthorne who came to Japan on a Dutch ship, hoping to unseat the Catholic Portuguese monopoly on trade with Japan. This has a lot of basis in history and Blackstone is loosely based on an English navigator called William Adams.

Tonally, the series is clearly aiming for something along the lines of Game of Thrones and it succeeds with a lot of tough-as-nails dialogue, though some of it is anachronistic, as when noblewoman Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) suggests to a Catholic priest that he'll find Christ up his own ass. Japanese feminine modesty is sacrificed to the familiar Hollywood cause of trashing Catholics. Not to say Catholics are particularly popular in Japan (I recommend this lecture on the topic).

The first episode of Tokyo Vice was directed by Michael Mann, was shot in Tokyo, and is based on the memoir by Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who was the first foreigner to work at a major Japanese newspaper. The book had enough of an air of authenticity in its coverage of organised crime in Japan that it has never been able to find a Japanese publisher. Mann's assured style seamlessly brings you into a world of casual corruption and routine journalistic capitulation. Shadows and neon halos conjure crime scenes and strip clubs, illuminating a jaded detective who matter-of-factly tells the protagonist "there is no murder in Tokyo." Ansel Elgort stars as Adelstein and I found him a lot more effective than he was in The Fault in Our Stars. I'll have to see how effective the show is in episodes not directed by Michael Mann but so far I'm impressed.