Tokyo Sin： Americans Lost in Japanese Culture
Text | Li Qinyu
The director is michael mann, who has filmed The Wire and Miami Vice, starring Japanese tough guy Ken Watanabe, and the elements in the plot include gangs and murders. It is estimated that many viewers will preconceived that "Tokyo Crime" is an action movie with hot scenes and hard contents.
But obviously they will be disappointed. The plot is progressing slowly, the style is serious and dull, and even the characters in the play have a sense of powerlessness, all of which remind us that this drama is by no means a "cool drama". On the contrary, it is a life record that shocks the soul and a unique text that tells about social problems and changes of the times.
After finishing college in Japan, American Jack Adelstam (the prototype of the protagonist Jack) applied for a job and entered the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper (that is, Ming Diao news in TV series), becoming one of the few American journalists who were allowed to enter the mysterious Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to report crimes. He also wrote this strange life experience into a best-selling book "Tokyo Sin".
This drama, adapted from this, tells the real crime story in Japan from a unique perspective, and also explores the modern gangster world that I rarely see in Japan, indirectly reflecting the complicated and sometimes interdependent relationship among journalists, police and gangsters.
From America to Japan: Living elsewhere
Although this drama has gathered many Japanese first-line movie stars, the most eye-catching one is Jack, who speaks fluent Japanese and is played by Ansel Elgort. This young American actor, who just starred in west side story, stands out among the Japanese and becomes a unique scenery.
Jack’s relationship with his father is not good, and his sister suffers from depression. He left his hometown and came to Tokyo, Japan, just to start a new life and pursue his dreams. And he did find his spiritual "father" again-Pan Tong, played by Ken Watanabe, who was honest and brave and taught and helped him all the way.
Not only Jack, but also Samantha, the hostess played by Rachel Keller, came to Tokyo to get rid of the unbearable past. These foreign faces in Tokyo are the most obvious metaphor of this play-from the perspective of Americans, going to Japan is more like "living elsewhere."
This is reminiscent of Goethe’s keen interest in China culture, especially China literature, and his mentality of creating "world literature". Frankly speaking, this is not how much Goethe loved China at that time, but the urgent feeling of wanting to obtain fresher cultural resources from the outside when the western world became more and more lifeless.
The mysterious and ancient Japanese culture is obviously attractive to "Jack" from America. In Ramen Girl, brittany murphy redeems her failed relationship by learning Japanese food culture. In "Kill Bill", uma thurman showed the American audience the aesthetics of violence. In The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise realized the Zen Buddhism of "nothing originally" and "life and death are all delusional" and the Bushido spirit of self-reliance and self-denial regardless of life and death.
In "Tokyo Sin", the first lesson that Piantong taught Jack was the "ceremony" in Japanese culture. It is by no means the set of values that police officers in the Jianghu Miyamoto uphold that focus on trading and buying and selling (this is precisely American culture), but the "righteousness" advocated by traditional Japanese. It is precisely because of Jack’s journalistic ideal in front of Piantong that Piantong is willing to help him.
In other words, the reason why "Jack" people are so obsessed with Tokyo is not that they are attracted by its sounds, dogs, horses, and traffic (which are all in America), but that they want to pursue new ideals and infinite possibilities here.
Conflict and misunderstanding: guilt culture and shame culture
Although jack was full of hope for his new life, he was hit on the head as soon as he entered the newspaper. The elder Yumi Maruyama warned Jack that he was not qualified to regard her as a "friend", let alone to call her by her first name. This is the important difference between American guilt culture and Japanese shame culture. The "original sin consciousness" produced by guilt culture makes Americans think that since everyone has "original sin", then everyone is equal; But for the Japanese, the root of conscience is the relationship between people, and the root of its culture comes from family relations.
It is clearly stated in Chrysanthemum and Knife that Japan "has a very thoughtful hierarchy in politics, religion, military, industry and other fields. No matter whether it is the upper level or the lower level, it will be punished if it exceeds its privileged scope." Therefore, Jack has to strictly abide by the hierarchy of the newspaper. Even if he finds a breakthrough clue in the report, he must obey the unreasonable orders of his boss (played by Kohsuke Toyohara)-the report must be written according to the police’s notification and cannot have his own creative content.
This also involves the main plot of the play-a series of murders created by the underworld Huze Group. They colluded with banks, used usury to push customers into the abyss of eternal ruin, and then forced customers to commit suicide by insulting and threatening to defraud huge expenses.
Perhaps some viewers will wonder why the Japanese choose to commit suicide after being insulted. This also shows the difference between guilt culture and shame culture in terms of restriction mechanism-the real guilt culture relies on the reflection of guilt in the heart to do good deeds; The real shame culture relies on external coercion to do good deeds. Therefore, in the shame culture, what matters is not what you have done, but whether you have been discovered by outsiders. This is the root cause of the victim’s unbearable humiliation and anger and suicide.
On the other hand, shame requires the presence of outsiders, at least to feel that outsiders are present. In other words, as long as the evil deeds are not discovered, it seems that they can get away with it. This is why police officer Miyamoto told Jack that there was "no" murder in Japan, and Mingdiao News did not support Jack’s further investigation at first. Jack sighed in the bar, "At least there is investigation news in the United States". Behind a complaint, it is the fierce conflict and huge difference between the two cultures.
Lost in Tokyo: An Outsider of Japanese Culture
Milan Kundera said, "Man is the one who walks in the fog." Facing the fog, people can only see the narrow space in front of them. Jack hopes to see the running logic of Tokyo gangs through news investigation, but he doesn’t realize that the power of individuals or even any organization is negligible in the face of the rolling wheel of history.
Huze Group and Chihara Group were sworn enemies fighting for territory. Because of Jack’s help, Chihara Group got rid of the mole, but did not dare to take revenge on Huze Group. Officer Piantong advised Ishida, the leader of Chihara Group, "Ten years ago, you could easily take Huze." Ishida’s facial expression was instantly stiff, and his eyes were full of sadness and helplessness.
It turns out that the Huze group has gradually gained the upper hand by drug trafficking and dirty financial scams, while the Chihara group still adheres to the traditional values of "chivalry" and finally retreats step by step. This battle just shows the irreversible decline trend of Japanese underworld.
In the film "Mafia and Family" which was released in 2020 and starred by G Ayano, the declining Japanese gangs even relied on seashore shells to subsidize their families. As American scholar R. taggart Murphy said in his book Japan and its historical shackles, emerging economic systems have spawned brand-new industrial and social structures, the level of industrialization is getting higher and higher, and the era of "speaking with fists" is gone.
Reminiscent that this drama happened at the turn of the century, Jack, an American, will witness in Tokyo the process of reshaping Japanese social life with the changes of the times-"fortitude" and "fortitude" are no longer the criteria for judging men, and "dedication" and "sacrifice" are no longer the qualities that people admire.
In other words, due to the wave of globalization, Jack is doomed to find his ideal country in Tokyo. Whether it’s police officer Piantong or gangster friend Sato, their "loyalty" and "benevolence" will eventually turn into tears of the times and fall on the bustling streets of Tokyo.
By the way, the original work exposes the black-box operations of industries such as human trafficking and obscene transactions organized by violent gangs, and criticizes the Japanese government for failing to protect the "human rights" of hostess, but such views are, after all, on the standpoint of "American centralism".
After all, Jack lost in Tokyo can never understand the life choices of Samantha (the hostess gave her the possibility to start a new life) and Sato (the gang gave him a second life), because he is an "outsider" and an "outsider" of Japanese culture after all.
-
