The first season of J.T. Rogers’ true story-inspired series “Tokyo Vice”, which is based on journalist Jake Adelstein’s biography, comes to a close with the season 1 finale. Adelstein worked as a reporter in Tokyo from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, covering the city’s criminal beat, and became entangled with the Japanese mafia, better known as The Yakuza. Adelstein built ties with local cops and informants, eventually arriving at information that would lead to death threats and expose him to a world that only a few people are familiar with and can endure.
Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Shô Kasamatsu, Ella Rumpf, Rinko Kikuchi, Shun Sugata, Hideaki Itô, and Ayumi Tanida star as Adelstein, with a supporting cast that includes Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Shô Kasamatsu, Ella Rumpf, Rinko Kikuchi, Shun Sugata, Hideaki Itô, and Ayumi Tanida. Despite the fact that “Tokyo Vice“ is based on Adelstein’s memoir, it is still deemed a work of fiction because it is not a straight reproduction of the book, but rather a loose translation set in the very real reality of Tokyo. The show was shot entirely on location with a talented creative team, including director Michael Mann, who directed the pilot episode.
Season 1 of “Tokyo Vice” follows Adelstein as he begins his job as a rookie reporter for the world’s largest newspaper. Adelstein developed sources within the police department and a local nightclub during the course of the season, finally meeting with a number of crucial people, including Ishida, Tozawa, Sato, Samantha, Polina, and everyone else involved in Tokyo’s neon-lit underworld of crime and corruption. Everything comes to a head in the conclusion, which leaves many things unsolved while pushing the characters into potentially dangerous new terrain. The following are the most pressing questions raised at the conclusion of “Tokyo Vice” Season 1.
Is Jake able to repair his relationship with Detective Katagiri?
Adelstein attempts to contact Watanabe’s Katagiri over the course of a month after breaching his confidence with the drug shipment tip, but the detective rejects all of his calls. Adelstein, despite his best intentions, can’t get past his ambition to succeed and learns one of the most essential lessons of his short career: don’t burn your contacts. Adelstein blames Sato for the erroneous tip, but he refuses to acknowledge that it was his own arrogance and impatience that wrecked his interactions with the cops (not to mention that Miyamoto set him up). After being battered and threatened by Tozawa’s men, as well as receiving the recording of Polina’s murder, Adelstein realizes that he must put his pride aside and try again to win Katagiri’s trust. Katagiri, who is now dealing with his own problems after Tozawa endangered his family’s lives and advised him to stay away, is at a point where he will want assistance to rebuild his case. With the stakes raised, his family in peril, and a desperate need for allies, it looks that Adelstein and Katagiri will mend their fences, as they will ultimately need each other’s support, not only to construct a case against Tozawa, but also to find forgiveness for their failings.
Is Tozawa responsible for the assassination of Detective Miyamoto and his threat to Katagiri?
When Katagiri realizes that Miyamoto is Tozawa’s inside man, the two team up to set him up. However, their plan backfires when Tozawa uncovers their ruse and instead sets up Katagiri to meet with him at the warehouse where the meth shipment was supposed to take place. Katagiri goes inside when he is unable to reach Miyamoto as intended, only to discover Tozawa waiting for him. Tozawa threatens Katagiri’s family, claiming Miyamoto is “somewhere his conscience will no longer be an issue to him” or a “burden” to him. The Yakuza leader claims that he doesn’t want to have two detectives vanish in the same night, which might indicate that Miyamoto is dead, but it could also indicate that he’s being held up somewhere or that he’s been threatened enough to depart on his own and never return. Tozawa and Miyamoto are unlikely to be working together at this time in order to deceive Katagiri, because Miyamoto can’t possibly return to the force after this. In any case, a cop is either missing or dead, further complicating Katagiri’s situation.
What Has Been Happening To Polina, And Who Is Yoshino?
Samantha’s best friend and a supporting character in “Tokyo Vice”, a fellow ex-pat living in Tokyo and working at the same club, Polina is Samantha’s best friend and a supporting player in “Tokyo Vice”. She’s also good friends with Akira, another club owner who pretends to be her boyfriend but exploits her in every manner. It’s clear that he doesn’t care about her, especially when Samantha comes seeking her after she vanishes, eventually discovering that Polina had racked up a large bill at Akira’s club and was unable to pay it off. This resulted in her disappearance, which Tozawa’s men, who own a stake in the club, orchestrated. Polina was transferred to the Yoshino, a “sex cruise” ship where she is supposed to work off her debt by “servicing” affluent Japanese businessmen aboard the ship. Later in the episode, Adelstein discovers this when a suspicious cassette is left for him at his home. Polina was inadvertently killed in a cruise ship bedroom by a clan member when she pushed back against a difficult client, according to the footage. Finally, this scene discloses Tozawa’s involvement in people trafficking, which is both a terrible fact and a way to rebuild a criminal case against him now that Adelstein and Katagiri have the recording. Who delivered the recording to Adelstein (and why) is unknown, but for the time being, Polina’s death appears to be a stand-in for Lucie Blackman’s real-life death from the Tokyo Vice book, despite the fact that the circumstances of their deaths are vastly different.
Samantha’s Partnership With The Yakuza Has Resulted In Her Losing Everything
Samantha strives to track Polina down after she mysteriously vanishes, eventually enlisting Adelstein’s assistance. In the midst of the investigation, Samantha is duped by Polina’s boyfriend, Akira, who defrauds her of all her savings by telling her Polina has been kidnapped and can only be saved if she pays a ransom. With no money and a half-completed club, Samantha resorts to severe tactics and joins the Yakuza, specifically the Chihara-kai. Samantha meets with Ishida, the oyabun of her boyfriend Sato’s clan, and makes such a good impression that she joins them in opening their club. Sato warns Ishida against it, primarily to protect her, but Ishida instead assigns him the responsibility of managing her club. Samantha responds that she is aware of the danger when Sato tells her about what she has done. Of course, the concern is that she’s now in bed with the Yakuza, which, like any large criminal organization, maybe the difference between life and death, regardless of whether her club succeeds or fails. Samantha ultimately picked the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” path, which allows her to benefit from their protection as long as she pays them money. Sato is heartbroken that he will have to enforce his organization’s will on her, as Ishida already told him they would if it’s a success, and is likely why he felt it was best to end their romance, as their relationship was put to the test several times throughout the season, particularly by his fellow Yakuza.
Sato Copes With The Death Of His Mentor, Samantha, As Well As The Possibility Of His Life
Sato has proven to be one of the show’s most intriguing characters, owing in part to actor Shô Kasamatsu’s breakout performance, but also to the complexity of his Yakuza character. Sato, a new recruit to Ishida’s clan who was mentored by Masayoshi Haneda’s Kume, who turned out to be a traitor working for Tozawa, has been put to the test far more than any other character in “Tokyo Vice” season 1, beginning with Kume’s forced suicide and his failure to kill him under Ishida’s orders. Sato redeems himself when he saves Ishida’s life from assassins hired by Tozawa, but he still has to prove he’s ready for the responsibility of clan chief, much alone if he has the stomach for it. It doesn’t help that the young guy he recruits is a catastrophe, whom he eventually releases, demonstrating his sympathetic side, despite the fact that the recruit would be worse off if he stayed with the Chihara-kai clan.
Sato’s connection with Samantha is fraught with complications, including dealing with a blackmail attempt perpetrated on Samantha by the guy hired by her father to find her down for stealing from the Mormon Missionary Fund in order for her to remain in Japan. Sato ends up killing the man, who was a powerful figure in the community, which could come back to haunt him. Samantha ends up going over Sato’s back to gain the Yakuza’s endorsement for her club, so his activities are likewise pointless. Sato’s first taste of treachery and anguish is made worse when he gets attacked in the street shortly after leaving Samantha, bleeding out and feared dead. The question today is if Sato is truly dead, and if so, who ordered the assassination. Sato has made a number of enemies since the beginning of the season, so it might be anyone or something random, but it’s unknown if he’ll survive his wounds in either case.
What happened to Tozawa, and whither did he go off?
Tozawa is shown fainting out at his birthday celebration in “Tokyo Vice” season 1 episode 7 owing to the illness he is suffering from. Tozawa is revealed to be suffering from some sort of illness from the start, with doctors attending to him on a daily basis and telling him not to smoke or drink, as well as to take it easy in general. He warns his mistress, whom he appears to love, that his days may be numbered, but then receives a mystery call with “extremely good news,” as he puts it. Tozawa was last spotted at the airport, prepared to board a private plane, after dealing with Adelstein and Detective Katagiri. His mistress is brought to him, and he tells her he’s going on a “last-minute excursion” before telling her that, despite her belief that he’ll die soon, he’ll be alive for a long time. It functions as both a threat and a promise, as Tozawa is seen sipping whiskey and smiling to himself on the flight.
If “Tokyo Vice” is following Adelstein’s book, Tozawa is traveling to the United States for a liver transplant, as this is exactly what happened in real life. Adelstein broke the tale of real-life Yakuza boss Tadamasa Goto, who was granted safe passage to the United States in exchange for information to the FBI and then paid UCLA medical specialists to skip the organ donation queue and receive a new liver. It’s unclear whether this will play out exactly like this in “Tokyo Vice”, which touts itself as “fictional” but nevertheless “loosely based” on Adelstein’s book. However, it’s likely that this is the direction the tale will take, and it’s an obvious reference to the opening scene of “Tokyo Vice’s” pilot episode, in which Adelstein is threatened with releasing a harmful article he has on Tozawa. The answers will be disclosed if “Tokyo Vice” is renewed for a second season, so fans will have to make do with a cliffhanger conclusion that puts everyone in danger save Tozawa until then.
https://hypeabout.com/season-1-episode-8-recap/