On my flight back, I stumbled across Tokyo Vice.
Based on a memoir by an American reporter on the police beat in 90s Tokyo, the pilot is directed by Michael Mann, and starring the driver from Baby Driver, next to Ken Watanabe. There’s a lot going on - suspense, murder, crime, the relationship between the press, police, and the underworld.
I watched it without my headphones on a 9-hour flight, so I wasn’t picky about the plot. Instead, it made me focus on the cinematography, colours, and treatment. I want to assume the series was shot on film rather than digital, with video cameras made in the 90s as the blue matches my memory of my Kodak Ektachorme photos from the first time I visited Tokyo 15 years ago. It’s slick and nostalgic at the same time. As if someone went back and shot a parallel story to Lost in Translation. You can tell me it was shot ten years ago and I’d believe you. I was also surprised to see Rinko Kikuchi, the deaf high school girl from Babel (and Pacific Rim) now playing the ‘auntie’ at work.
The show is aesthetic, and the setting attractive but the underlying message is this: light needs shadow and vice versa. For every kawaii soft toy made in Japan; there’s a family getting affected by loan sharks, at least in the 90s.
In ep 5 there’s a side plot about how Sato, our Yakuza protagonist recruited a junior. So, the young boy gets into trouble, his parents ask the police/yakuza to help out, and Sato walks in promising cars, money, and girls.
And in ep 8 you see the same junior being berated for not cutting the spring onions properly by the head of the Chihara-Kai clan.
Guys, the texture of spring onions is really important in miso soup.
It was such a random side plot (like many in the series) I can only guess that the takeaway is that gangsta life is tough, stay in school kids.
How many of us were promised cars, money, and girls by Google, Facebook, the big four accounting and consulting firms, pyramid scheme MLMs only to be cutting spring onions?
Everyone who thinks Japan is this wonderful beautiful place should give this a go and enjoy a dose of reality.
I have done my own investigative journalism this trip.
Are you willing to take a bet with me, that every brunch menu in Melbourne has at least one Japanese item?
Kewpie, Panko, Sichimi, Togarashi, Mirin, Sake, Ponzu, Shiitake, Sashimi, Yuzu, Onsen Tamago, Korokke, Ichigo, Sansho, Mikan, Shisho, Rayu, Goma, Calpis, Asahi, Kirin, Azuki, Matcha, Gyoza, Red Ginger, Wagyu …
Do you feel lucky, punk?
We have this fetish for Japanese food, or should I say Japanese ingredients, that if you have the ‘made in Japan’ sticker you can slap a further 30% on the price and the market will pay for it.
The Japanese in Japan must eat the best food.
Well, have I got some news for you.
Here are some photos I took from the grocery stores:
Turns out globalisation is real.
Supermarkets in Japan are just like supermarkets in Australia. I’d say Australia is a little better with transparency with the ‘x% made from Australian ingredient’ label.
I remember watching a Japanese TV show about how 90% of the average bowl of ramen is made from Chinese ingredients. (It’s a long time ago so I don’t have a source for you.) But here’s a website of a farm-to-table coop listing their products that use Chinese ingredients.
For example, ‘Nagasaki dried snapper’ uses Chinese snapper.
‘Frozen chawanmushi’ uses Chinese shrimp.
‘Sweet and sour pork’ uses Chinese bamboo shoots.
Even the Japanese can’t afford to eat Japanese.
I received some awfully cold shoulders from this - my wife’s favourite childhood fried tofu, the one that goes with her miso soup - made from American soybeans.
The ‘local’ mentaiko she insists is better than whatever we can find in Australia? Russian / American pollack roes.
I showed her the labels. (Okay, I might’ve slammed it a little too hard on the table.)
“……”
“It’s ok, Japan has a stricter requirement. Even though it’s imported, it’s still better than other country’s imported goods.”
I did not offer an opinion, leaving her to her own conclusion.
That’s how much I value our marriage.
Perhaps she’s right.
Just like phone cameras, food is not about the hardware anymore, it’s the software.
It’s not what you cook, it’s how you cook it.
Some asshole wrote.
If Singaporean chicken rice can be made from Malaysian and Brazillian chickens, then Japanese ramen can definitely be made from Chinese bamboo shoots, Chinese pork, soy sauce from Chinese soybeans, Chinese dried scallops…
Ramen of Theseus should be the name of my new shop.
Maybe the real question is why are we so hung up on locally-made ingredients? Freshness, pride, or just a regurgitation from media consumption?
You know what’s also real?
Inflation.
I think the government is just doing all they can to make sure families get food on their table.
People are willing to tolerate imported ingredients as long as the finished product and price points stay the same.
After all, Yakuza bosses need their spring onion on their miso soup.
As long as it is cut properly, we’ll be fine.
I just remembered another scene in another episode, in which the boss of the rival Tozawa clan also getting worked up by his steak.
It just dawned on me that perhaps this is to show the stark differences between the two clans. One eats steak with his mistress (fancy new), and the other drinks miso soup with his boys (traditional old).
Both take out their frustration over food not being done their way.
Or was it the other way around?
They’re miserable, therefore, their food is always unsatisfactory.
There is a lesson in all this.
Food is the lowest-hanging fruit in story-telling.
You, me, a yakuza boss, we all gotta eat.
We can get upset over how the food didn’t turn out the way we wanted.
Or just accept it as the way it is.
LOL, the spring onion scene was probably the most memorable part of the show!
BTW, Harvard, reading this made me think of this quote from Michael Mann about making 'Tokyo Vice'.
"[Y]ou run up against a quite wonderful Japanese cultural tradition and value system where if somebody has a food stand, they’ve been running that food stand for 35 or 40 years, they have their customers, and they are not going to interrupt the flow of their customers or the customers’ expectations. Like, there’s a couple of people who may show up exactly at 4:30, so if you want to shoot at 4:30, you can’t and no amount of money is going to change that attitude…. That also made it pretty tough, but we managed to do it by being persistent and innovative.”