Like a Dragon: Yakuza

 

Growing up in an orphanage under the protection of ex-yakuza Shintaro Kazama (Toshiaki Karasawa), Kazuma Kiryu, siblings Akira “Nishiki” and Miho Nishikiyama, and sisters Yumi and Aiko Sawamura form close bonds. When Kiryu decides to make a name for himself by joining the Yakuza, he drags his adoptive family into the criminal underworld with him. Years later, Kiryu (Ryoma Takeuchi) has been excommunicated for killing his boss. He is released from prison to find Nishiki (Kento Kaku) occupying that boss’s position, a masked assailant picking off yakuza left and right, Aiko (Misato Morita) missing along with a large amount of illicit money, Yumi (Yuumi Kawai) desperately searching for her, and the Tokyo-based Tojo Clan on the brink of war with the Omi Alliance of Kansai over the missing money. As Kiryu, the clan’s former enforcer turned persona non grata, reluctantly reenters his old life, everything threatens to fall apart around him.

 

SEGA’s long-running Yakuza/Like a Dragon video game franchise spans more than a half-dozen games released over nearly two decades that encompass everything from political scandals to intense family drama to too-wacky-to-describe slapstick, all of which renders a faithful television adaptation an impossibility. Amazon Studios took a broad strokes approach to adapting the first game’s plot, covering many of the key events albeit with significant alterations, some for the better, and several for the worse. While fidelity is not and should not be a byword for quality, one couldn’t help but wonder if hewing closer to the source material in this case would have yielded a better result.

 

Positives first: Kaku does an excellent job as Nishiki, embodying his desperation to keep the terminally ill Miho alive, his regard for and later resentment toward Kiryu, and his iciness as his ambition grows. While Kiryu is a challenging character to play – he can come across as a flat “stoic warrior” stereotype in clumsy hands – Takeuchi acquits himself reasonably well. That he isn’t the sole protagonist here reduces the amount of heavy lifting required.

 

The series’ production values are solid if unspectacular: the Tokyo nightlife isn’t as impressively rendered as it is in Tokyo Vice, and the fight scenes don’t match the adrenaline or emotion of the games. That said, while it may not pop, it doesn't feel cheap or languid, either.

 

Among the changes made from the source material, not all are negative. Yumi, for all the personal significance she holds for Kiryu, was a fairly flat character in the first Yakuza game. Here, with her game actions split between Yumi and Aiko (an original character – Yumi invented a sister as a cover identity in the game), she’s given more room to grow and comes across as more competent and more tortured. However, this arguably comes at the expense of developing Haruka (her daughter in the game and Aiko’s in the series) and Kiryu’s protectiveness of her.

 

In other cases, the departures range from defensible to baffling. Series favorite Goro “Mad Dog” Majima (Munetaka Aoki) isn’t given much screen time, but then again, he wasn’t a major character in the first game, either. Masaya Kato looks nothing like the short, lecherous, toadlike Dojima (the murdered boss), but he retains the character’s greed and manipulativeness, and his added height actually makes him more imposing. However, other characters are practically unrecognizable in appearance, personality, or both. Tojo Clan chairman Masaru Sera, an unflappable dead ringer for Ken Watanabe in the games, is as played by Koichi Sato, a good deal older-looking and a good deal less composed when faced with danger.

 

Beyond that, Like a Dragon’s pacing is decidedly uneven. The series often seems to buckle under the weight of its multiple narrative threads. Rather than past and present or Kiryu’s, Nishiki’s, and Yumi/Aiko’s stories playing effectively off of one another to create tension, they sometimes feel as if they are competing for screen time.

 

All told, Like a Dragon is not a terrible show, just a disappointing one. The acting offers enough bright spots to suggest what might have been if the creators had a better feel for the source material and its audience.