Ken Watanabe is the real star of ‘Tokyo Vice’

Watanabe’s detective might be in the background early on, but trust us – he won’t be there for long.

Source: HBO Max / Endeavour Content / WOWOW

The opening scene of Tokyo Vice is an incredibly tense encounter in a Japanese nightclub between expat American journalist Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) and a group of extremely sinister Yakuza crime figures. Or at least, it’s an incredibly tense encounter until you recognise that Jake’s backup – detective Hiroto Katagiri – is played by Ken Watanabe. Is he going to let anything happen to a journalist under his protection? Not on your life.

Watanabe is one of the most forceful, dynamic and downright powerful actors out of Japan in the last few decades. He’s had an extensive career in his homeland at the same time as he’s become a fixture in Hollywood. He was in two of the recent Godzilla remakes, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, he played Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins, and was the lead in a Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. He was the actor who stole The Last Samurai out from under Tom Cruise; don’t expect him to fade into the background here.

Always a powerful presence: Ken Watanabe in 'Tokyo Vice'. Source: HBO Max / Endeavour Content / WOWOW

It turns out that initial encounter is a flash-forward, and most of the first episode of Tokyo Vice is a step back in time, with Katagiri operating off-screen while rookie reporter Adelstein tries to fit into 1990s Japan, a culture with zero interest in making concessions to a westerner. He might have passed the entrance exam to work on Tokyo’s biggest newspaper, Meicho Shimbun (making him their first ever foreign reporter), but he still has a lot to learn.

Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe in Tokyo Vice

A lot to learn: Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) and Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe). Source: HBO Max / Endeavour Content / WOWOW

Katagiri initially appears investigating what becomes Adelstein’s first story. It seems an obvious murder: a body was left on the street with multiple stab wounds, the knife that was used still sticking out of him. Yet as Adelstein soon learns from clearly shady cop Jin Miyamoto (Hideaki Itō), in Japan, unless there’s a witness, it’s not a murder. The role of the police isn’t so much to investigate and prosecute crimes, as it is to keep the peace – and that’s where Katagiri comes in.

Tokyo Vice becomes more of an ensemble series as it goes on, with the rise of up-and-coming Yakuza member Sato (Shô Kasamatsu) and the workplace dramas of expat hostess Samantha (Rachel Keller) moving into the spotlight. Together with Adelstein, they’re characters often buffeted by fate in a society bound by rules and codes of conduct seemingly designed to thwart their ambitions.

Shô Kasamatsu Source: HBO Max / Endeavour Content / WOWOW

Katagiri is different. He not only knows how this society works, he’s someone who sets the rules (though as the series progresses it’s clear that even a skilled manipulator like him can only do so much on his own). He’s also the only central character with a home life, thanks to a frankly adorable family… which, of course, is also a weakness when things start to get serious.

Casting Watanabe in the role instantly gives the character an authority and an intensity above and beyond those around him. They’re pieces on the board, and Katagiri’s the one playing the game. He’s not a character pulling strings from behind the scenes. Watanabe is just too charismatic and watchable to play someone hiding in the shadows. Katagiri is someone whose sheer presence keeps the gangs in line, and with Watanabe in the role you believe every second of it.

Hideaki To (left) and Ken Watanabe in 'Tokyo Vice'

Hideaki To (left) and Ken Watanabe. Source: HBO Max / Endeavour Content / WOWOW

His on-screen charisma here is hardly a one-off. He’s often cast as a leader who still has his humanity; if his work in Tokyo Vice has left you wanting more, SBS On Demand has a pair of his earlier films where his natural authority is put to good use.

Letters from Iwo Jima

is the Japanese-focused half of Clint Eastwood’s duology looking at one of the final battles of the War in the Pacific. Watanabe plays the general in charge of Japan’s last-ditch defence of the island of Iwo Jima, an intelligent, honourable man given an impossible task.

The more recent

Bel Canto

sees him more than holding his own opposite Julianne Moore as a Japanese industrialist who is, along with Moore’s opera singer, taken hostage at a birthday party and kept captive at gunpoint for over a month.

He’s clearly an actor you cast when you want someone serious in charge (yes, even in the recent Pokemon: Detective Pickachu), and it’s his strength that drives Tokyo Vice. Adelstein might have some basic street smarts, but it’s not until Katagiri takes him under his wing – sensing that he might be a way to shake up the system and weaken the Yakuza’s hold on society – that the reporter starts to get somewhere.

Does that make him the real star of Tokyo Vice? The real question is, was there ever any doubt?

Tokyo Vice episodes are available weekly

at SBS On Demand

but only for a strictly limited time. Be quick!

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