Summary
I love Yakuza. So it might be hard to believe that I didn’t really think about Prime’sLike a Dragon: Yakuzaadaptation ahead of its launch this past week. Don’t get me wrong, I was keen to see it for myself, but I wasn’t dwelling on whether it was going to be any good. I kept my expectations low.
I wanted to go in with a blank slate - that was the only way I could possibly enjoy it, as others with… different expectations are discovering to their detriment. We know video game adaptations haven’t often been done well in the past, and that includes some middling attempts on Like a Dragon. The odds were not in our favour.
Sorry Like a Dragon: Prologue and Like a Dragon (2007), you just aren’t that good. The fandom has embraced the latter for its campy action and some hilarious scenes in recent years (and I love it for that too), but that doesn’t make it a great film.
Let’s address the dragon in the room first. Like a Dragon: Yakuza isverydifferent from the source material. There are new plot elements, brand new characters, while the timeline of established events is altered heavily. As much as these may be well-known characters you’re watching on screen, don’t expect their personalities or actions to match their game counterparts.
I don’t believe the series should be condemned simply for doing something different. If you don’t like change, you won’t like this adaptation. Stop reading, stop watching, this isn’t for you, and unless you want to spend the next week complaining into the void of Twitter, just save yourself the heartache.
It’s not easy to sit and watch something you cherish be moulded into something different. There were a couple of changes I wasn’t enamoured with, though others grew on me with time. If you can get past that initial gut reaction, there’s a lot to appreciate here.
An Insight Into The Folly Of Youth
For starters, the cast isfantastic. Kento Kaku is the standout for me, managing to balance and convey the different sides of Nishikiyama Akira exceptionally well, while Munetaka Aoki was theperfectMajima Goro. I wish he had more screen time.
Ryoma Takeuchi delivers an interesting version of a young Kiryu Kazuma that feels more raw and vulnerable than the games, offering a different window into this character’s youth where he’s more bravado and less of a gentleman.
He maintains the morals and innocence of Kiryu that we know and love from the games, but his motives and actions are altered. Game Kiryu would have carried Yumi’s bags, but television Kiryu is a brash youngster too occupied with being cool to even consider it.
It’s perhaps because the show benefits from distancing itself that the scenes set in 1995, with the cast playing their younger ‘selves’, were the best. They emphasise the folly of youth, and we see a broader perspective of the characters’ lives than we ever saw in the games. It includes some characters that were mere footnotes in the source material, yet here they are developed to the point where I felt emotionally attached, making it hit all the more harder when they eventually leave us behind.
There is one specific scene that people seem to hate. Kiryu and Nishiki, after being inducted into the Dojima family, are walking down Kamurocho’s iconic streets with the red arch looming above them as the upbeat tune of Mr. Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra plays. Civilians spot their Tojo clan badges and hastily bow to get out of their way, and the two teens start laughing between themselves about how awesome it is.
‘Kiryu and Nishiki wouldn’t have acted that way’, many have complained. First, we’ve already established this is a retelling. Secondly, Kiryu and Nishiki admired Kazama and wanted to become yakuza in the games, that’s literally why they became yakuza. You’ve gotta stop clutching those pearls…
They are two young, headstrong boys who think they are men. They think they are so cool to be hardened Yakuza respected by strangers on the street. The games might not have shown a scene like this, but it’s absolutely believable that two teenagers would have swaggered down the street lapping up attention, and this scene perfectly captures that. It’s admirable for an adaptation to fill in the gaps like this, even if it falls short elsewhere.
Later scenes show the boys scrubbing toilets and cleaning cars after living out of a disused bathhouse, an effective juxtaposition of their ideals versus reality. Both scenes show the life of a yakuza, and neither works without the other - looking at them independently is to take them out of context.
Likewise, the scenes of Yumi and Miho dressing up to work in Serena as hostesses have a fun, montage feel. Once again, this tonal juxtaposition is done deliberately. Yumi never acclimates to this job or life, ensuring audiences are in constant unease even as the scene of violent control masquerades as joyful. Miho, on the other hand, does embrace this lifestyle, and we eventually see the consequences of this when her overindulgence in alcohol affects her health.
Unfortunately, the sticking point is that the show fumbles many of the changes it makes. Instead of opting for a simple retelling it is too confusing for its own good, and in turn turns off new and old fans alike. It’s overly ambitious for a miniseries and never decides exactly what it is or what it wants to say.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza weaves an intricate web of new plot threads, with masked killers, missing money, changing stakes and alliances, and a firm deadline for an added sense of urgency. It strays from the known canon to set up some interesting insights and perspectives into the world and its characters. There’s so much promise to this altered setting, but it’s confined to only six episodes. There’s just not enough time to do it justice.
Some parts feel rushed, while smaller plot threads are left hanging. It’s both too short for the story it’s telling and too long in that it invites stray avenues that could have been trimmed for a tighter narrative.
More episodes would have also allowed them toexplore the series’ sense of humour, which was severely. But if it didn’t even have enough time to deliver its main storyline fully, it certainly couldn’t afford a karaoke scene.
Like A Dragon: Yakuza is best appreciated by watching it yourself, experiencing the journey and unravelling its mysteries as you would with any other unfamiliar narrative. It’s different enough from the games that you won’t know what will happen. Even with similar elements, you are left guessing if they too might also be altered right up until they aren’t. You can’t take anything at face value here, and that’s a good thing.
Like it or lump it, it was bold of Amazon to reimagine such a beloved story. It features a brilliant cast and delivers some equally brilliant ideas, but unfortunately, it doesn’t manage to commit to the world it’s creating throughout its six short episodes..
