While filmmaker Michael Mann helped “Tokyo Vice” get on its feet and gave the show its cinematic grammar, the series was always the creation of writer/showrunner and Tony Award winner J.T. Rogers. Based on the memoir “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan” by Jake Adelstein, that’s always been the gist and heart of the show: an American reporter in Japan on the crime beat and learning the ropes and the culture.
Season one starred Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein and Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe as Hiroto Katagiri, a detective in the organized crime division who eventually befriends and nurtures Elgort. They and the rest of the primary cast return for season two, which premieres February 8 on Max.
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The ten-episode “Tokyo Vice” second season debuts with two episodes, followed by one new episode weekly for eight weeks. On top of Elgort and Watanabe, “Tokyo Vice” also features Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, Ayumi Ito, and new series regulars Yosuke Kubozuka and Miki Maya.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, season two of the series, filmed on location in Tokyo, takes us deeper into the city’s criminal underworld as Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) comes to realize that his life, and the lives of those close to him, are in terrible danger.
J.T. Rogers and Emmy winner Alan Poul are executive producers on the series alongside Alex Boden, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Brad Caleb Kane, Adam Stein, Ken Watanabe, Emmy winner Emily Gerson Saines, Ansel Elgort, Jake Adelstein, Kayo Washio, Destin Daniel Cretton, Academy Award winner John Lesher, and four-time Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner Michael Mann.
“Tokyo Vice” returns to Max on February 8. Check out the first trailer below.