Tokyo Vice’s Ansel Elgort & Ken Watanabe on Making a Series in Both Japanese and English
308I know you keep hearing about new series that you need to watch. I constantly hear about new shows from friends and colleagues almost every day. And while I know you are being bombarded all the time…you need to add Tokyo Vice to your list asap. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright J.T. Rogers and inspired by the 2009 memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein, the series stars Ansel Elgort as a young American journalist (based by Adelstein) who moves to Japan to work for a major newspaper in Tokyo in the late 90s. While trying to figure out how everything works before losing his job, he becomes friendly with a detective with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (Ken Watanabe), who refuses to be bought in a city where many are corrupted by money. Filmed entirely on location in Tokyo, the crime drama series will keep you guessing. Tokyo Vice also stars Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Ella Rumpf, Hideaki Ito, Sho Kasamatsu, and music star Tomohisa Yamashita. In addition, Michael Mann directed the pilot episode, and it’s his work is fantastic.
Shortly after watching some episodes, I got to speak with Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe. During the interview, they talked about why the material works better as a series than a movie, what sequence was tough to pull off, what people would be surprised to learn about the making of Tokyo Vice, how the COVID shutdown helped make the series even better, why having the characters speak in both English and Japanese is more realistic, and how filming during COVID was like turning back the clock. In addition, Elgort talks about how Watanabe is very low key in real life and how he worked to speak fluent Japanese on the show.
Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe
When was the last time Watanabe had to pay for a drink in Japan?
Elgort explains how Watanabe is very low key in real life.
What would people be surprised to learn about the making of Tokyo Vice?
Watanabe talks about his initial apprehension about the series but the more he learned about the story the more he became invested in doing it.
Why Tokyo Vice was better as a TV series.
Why COVID was like turning back the clock to when the series takes place because tourism was much lower.
Which shot or sequence ended up being a real challenge to pull off?
Watanabe on why he thinks Japanese is the most difficult language in the world to learn.
Watanabe on why he enjoyed having the conversation go back and forth between English and Japanese.
How did the COVID shutdown help make the series better?
#TokyoVice #AnselElgort #KenWatanabe
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