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When the news broke earlier this month that Japan-set crime drama “Tokyo Vice” had been canceled, it came as a blow to fans, but not exactly a surprise. For two seasons on Max, the show — adapted by showrunner J.T. Rogers from journalist Jake Adelstein’s memoir of the same name — stood out as an increasingly rare gem in a contracting, decidedly post-peak TV landscape. Starring Ansel Elgort as a fictionalized version of Adelstein, a journalist who embeds with the yakuza as a reporter at the country’s largest daily paper, “Tokyo Vice” delivered an immersive, detailed portrait of the global capital at the turn of the millennium.

Better yet, “Tokyo Vice” improved over time. Season 2 broadened the story’s focus from Jake to a larger ensemble, while also bringing his long-simmering conflict with ascendant boss Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida) to a head. The finale offered a satisfying conclusion, ending on Jake...

“Tokyo Vice” creator and executive producer J.T. Rogers had a two-season story mapped out from the beginning, so much so that he had to make sure that the first season of the Max drama seeded the details and Easter eggs that wouldn’t pay off or become important until the second season.

“The pressure for me at least was having an idea going on for a few years now and really champing at the bit to get to the places we wanted,” Rogers tells Gold Derby (watch the exclusive video interview above). “Hikari, our wonderful director on Episode 4 in Season 1, said, ‘I don’t think we have time to get that shot of the watch.’ I said, ‘You need it because 11 hours from now on television, there’s going to be a reference to it.’ So there are so many things we set up narratively, and to have the luxury...

It’s been nearly two years since the premiere of “Tokyo Vice,” in which director Michael Mann introduced us to yet another lonely male obsessive. As the sole Caucasian employee of Tokyo’s largest newspaper, Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) — a real-life journalist and executive producer of the show, which is loosely based on his memoir of the same name — stood out like a sore thumb. He also acted as a Virgil guiding American viewers through the Japanese underworld at the turn of the millennium. Jake investigates organized crime via an informal partnership with Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe), a policeman who doesn’t fight the yakuza so much as help preserve the equilibrium among their competing factions. Samantha (Rachel Keller), a Mormon missionary turned apostate, served a similar purpose to Jake, but as a guide to hostess bars, a source of paid yet strictly nonsexual company unfamiliar to Westerners.

In Season...

The bond between parents and their children is at the core of many narratives, especially when it comes to the idea of passing on knowledge or teaching someone skills you feel are necessary to survive in this world. During his career, Japanese director Naoya Asanuma has explored this link quite often, if features such as “Fuyu go moetara” (2017) or “My life, My love and My pickpocketing” (2015) are any indicators. His newest feature, the short “The Stolen Ocean” is no exception to the rule, blending family drama and road movie and resulting in a tale about two outcasts, which benefits especially from its two central performances, and which receives its international premiere at this year’s Japan Filmfest Hamburg.

The Stolen Ocean is screening at Japan Filmfest Hamburg

However, it is not just the bond between father and child which connects Kosuke (Takaki Uda) and his daughter Hazuki (Riho Toshio). In order to provide for themselves,...

The concept of the home invasion has been explored in a number of radically different films in Japanese cinema, from Takashi Miike’s “Visitor Q” to Koji Fukada’s “Harmonium”. Naoya Fujita adds another, radically different approach, by making the invader a public servant, in an effort that netted him the Best Picture Award from Skip City International D-Cinema Festival.

Stay screened at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival

A group of five people has occupied a traditional Japanese house, living there in a kind of commune where the only rule is that they accept everybody and that they all do their share in chores and contribute financially. However, the local town office wants them out of there, even though they have no particular reason to evict them, and has dispatched a number of public servants to ask them to leave, to no avail. The latest “agent” is Yajima, a young...