Streaming picks: ‘Tokyo Vice’ and the best of Michael Mann
Today brings the much anticipated premiere of celebrated director Michael Mann’s latest series, “Tokyo Vice.” The first three episodes will debut on HBO Max this week, with pairs of episodes dropping every Thursday after that until the finale on April 28. The series, filmed on location in Tokyo, is inspired by the memoir by Jake Adelstein, “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan,” with Ansel Elgort starring as Adelstein. Mann directed the pilot episode and serves as an executive producer on the project, which was created by acclaimed playwright J.T. Rogers.
This gritty crime drama set in the late ’90s follows Adelstein as a cub reporter at one of Japan’s largest newspapers, and his dangerous journey investigating one of the largest yakuza crime bosses in Tokyo. Ken Watanabe costars as a sympathetic cop, as Jake tries to navigate through the bureaucracy of his newspaper (Rinko Kikuchi plays his stern editor) and the crime culture of Tokyo’s underbelly.
Though Mann is predominantly known for his film work, this isn’t the first time he’s tackled a series. He famously produced the groundbreaking 1980s crime series “Miami Vice” (streaming on Peacock) and collaborated with David Milch on the horse racing series “Luck,” starring Dustin Hoffman (streaming on HBO Max). His cult TV series “Robbery Homicide Division,” starring Tom Sizemore, took place in the LAPD division of the same name, but the only place to watch that is currently for free is on YouTube.
While it’s great to see Mann return to the small screen with a series as exciting as “Tokyo Vice,” a revisit to his filmography is a true treat. Start in the 1980s with his “neon-noir” films, the James Caan-starring “Thief” (streaming on Tubi and Kanopy) and the Thomas Harris adaptation “Manhunter,” starring William Petersen, Dennis Farina and Brian
Cox (available for a $3.99 rental).
Mann directed two of the bona-fide classics of the 1990s, the epic adventure-romance “The Last of the Mohicans” starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and the magnum opus of masculinity, “Heat,” pitting Robert De Niro and Al Pacino against each other as a crime boss and a cop. Rent “Heat” on all digital platforms or stream it on AMC+, and if you can’t get enough “Heat,” check out the addictive and entertaining podcast “One Heat Minute,” in which film critic Blake Howard breaks down the film one minute at a time. Don’t forget Mann’s 1999 whistleblower thriller “The Insider,” starring Pacino and Russell Crowe, streaming on Hulu or available for rent elsewhere.
After his 2001 biopic “Ali” starring Will Smith (streaming on Netflix and Hulu), Mann started to experiment with digital cinematography, and in 2004, delivered the stone-cold digital crime classic, the hazy nighttime L.A. noir “Collateral,” starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx (streaming on HBO Max). In 2006, he reimagined “Miami Vice” as a tragic romance, starring Colin Farrell, Gong Li and Foxx, and though the film was misunderstood at the time, it’s found a new cult appreciation lately. Rent it on all platforms for $3.99. “Public Enemies,” released in 2009, features Johnny Depp as John Dillinger (on Netflix or Tubi), and his last movie (so far) was 2015’s hacker thriller “Blackhat,” now on Netflix.