‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Trailer: Ansel Elgort Is an Expat Journalist Chasing Down a Criminal Conspiracy

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Ansel Elgort is returning to Japan for Season 2 of Max series “Tokyo Vice.”

The “West Side Story” star muses in the trailer that he loves the “unpredictability” of being a journalist abroad covering organized crime. However, the dangers of covering the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat pushes him deeper into the city’s criminal underworld.

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“Tokyo Vice” is created and written by Tony Award winner J.T. Rogers and loosely based on real-life journalist Jake Adelstein’s experiences as an expat. Elgort stars as Adelstein, with Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, and Ayumi Ito reprising their respective roles for Season 2.

Yosuke Kubozuka and Miki Maya join the cast as new series regulars for the 10-episode second season.

“Tokyo Vice” Season 2 debuts with the first two episodes, followed by weekly installments. The series is executive produced by creator Rogers and director Alan Poul along with Michael Mann, Destin Daniel Cretton, John Lesher, journalist Jake Adelstein, Alex Boden, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Brad Caleb Kane, Adam Stein, Kayo Washio, and actors Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort. Executive producer Mann previously directed the show’s pilot episode.

The series hails from Fifth Season and Wowow, Japan’s premium pay TV broadcaster. Fifth Season andles global distribution for the series outside of Max owned and operated platforms.

IndieWire’s Ben Travers praised the series for being a “surprisingly rewarding endeavor” in the Season 1 review. “‘Tokyo Vice’ sticks to the same perspective as its source material in tracking a fictionalized version of Jake Adelstein, the author behind the 2009 memoir ‘Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan,'” Travers wrote. “Such choices may put the series in a hole some viewers won’t peer into, and that’s fair. Still, anyone familiar with Michael Mann‘s knack for off-center close-ups, who trusts in his steady excavations of unsavory men, should find ‘Tokyo Vice’ a compulsive watch, even after the ‘Miami Vice’ auteur exits the director’s chair.”

Actor/executive producer Wantanabe later told IndieWire that Season 2 is “more complicated.”

“There’s stuff we could explain about [Emi’s] background, the journalist [played by Rinko Kikuchi], and Sato [played by Shô Kasamatsu], and the gangs,” Watanabe said. “But it’s more exciting, definitely.”

“Tokyo Vice” Season 2 premieres February 8 on Max. Check out the trailer below.

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