Following the first-look image unveiled back in February, HBO Max released today the first trailer for Tokyo Vice, an upcoming action-thriller series that is set to premiere in early April. Inspired by a true story, the series starring Ansel Elgort follows a young American journalist who is sent to chronicle the everyday activities from of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and ends up uncovering shocking information about the Vice squad and the Yakuza — the Japanese mafia.
The trailer reveals Elgort as Jake, an American investigative reporter who ups and moves to the Japanese metropolis once he decides to write about crime in Japan. As any newcomer, he's not taken very seriously by his peers, but things start changing when he decides to get to know the "real" Tokyo and quickly discovers that his investigation may indeed get very real — and that, of course, includes, secrets, death threats and putting his life at risk.
The Tokyo Vice trailer also showcases the urban Japanese backdrop, which is a welcome setting for viewers on this side of the planet who are soaked with Americas and European-based stories. Considering that renowned film director Michael Mann directs the pilot episode and sets the tone for the series, it's safe to assume he will have no problem making Tokyo itself a character and make us feel like we know the city, just like he did in Miami Vice and Heat.
Tokyo Vice is created and written by J.T. Rogers, a playwright who previously adapted his own play Oslo for the screen. Rogers based Tokyo Vice on the memoir of the same name by journalist Jake Adelstein, played by Elgort on screen. Aside from Elgort, the cast of Tokyo Vice also features Academy Award nominees Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) and Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim: Uprising), Rachel Keller (FX's Legion), Ella Rumpf (Raw), Hideaki Ito (Lesson of the Evil), Sho Kasamatsu (The Naked Director), and music star Tomohisa Yamashita (The Head).
HBO Max premieres the first three episodes of Tokyo Vice on April 7, and two episodes will premiere every Thursday after that, all the way through the season finale on April 28.
For Japanese audiences, WOWOW will debut the first episode of Tokyo Vice in Japan via its streaming service on April 7, with subsequent episodes recurring every Sunday evening on the WOWOW channel starting on April 24 through June.
You can watch the trailer and check out the poster below:
Check out the official synopsis here:
Loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, the crime drama series, filmed on location in Tokyo, captures Adelstein’s (played by Ansel Elgort) daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo in the late ’90s, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem.