American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 18

SIGNATURE STYLES
Previous spread: After landing a job at a major Japanese newspaper,
American journalist Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) delves into Tokyo's
shadowy criminal underbelly. This page, top: After catching Adelstein
covertly snapping photos of a police intervention, detective Hiroto
Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) confiscates his camera. Bottom: Nightclub
hostess Samantha (Rachel Keller) and Yakuza henchman Sato (Sho
Kasamatsu) embark upon a dangerous relationship.
Tokyo Vice | A Criminal Underground
By Michael Kogge
When cinematographer John Grillo visited Tokyo in the early 1990s, the
city reminded him of the Los Angeles depicted in Blade Runner, with its
bright neon nighttime lights and its mixture of ultra-modern technology
and ancient culture. However, for the pilot of the HBO Max series
Tokyo Vice, director Michael Mann challenged Grillo to go beyond this
now-common image of the city and capture a Tokyo that was grittier,
rougher and less illuminated. Mann wanted to show the city's unglamorous
side and explore the spaces where ordinary people lived, worked,
ate, and even killed - or, as Mann describes it, " the real Tokyo. "
Says Grillo, " Michael is the last director who would want to do postcard
photography. He does not want to repeat the usual visual tropes.
So, we didn't even think about doing the beauty shots of certain streets
in Tokyo with all the lit signs. We wanted to get into the underground
of the city. "
In the pilot, the camera becomes the vehicle that tours a version of
Tokyo rarely portrayed on Western screens - moving, bobbing and
weaving through scenes; seldom at rest; always curious and kinetic.
" You feel the excitement of the camera showing you the place and showing
you character, " Grillo says. " We achieved that with a combination of
handheld work and Steadicam, as well as the P+S Skater Scope. "
Camera and character are closely linked in the pilot. The protagonist,
American ex-pat Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), joins the staff of a major
Tokyo newspaper as a cub reporter and begins investigating a grisly
murder and a dramatic self-immolation that takes him into the shadowy
world of the Yakuza crime syndicate. The camera's constant motion not
only reveals Tokyo's underbelly, but also reflects Jake's inner turbulence
and unease. Grillo believes this kineticism is fundamental to the look
and feel of the show: " The signature style of Tokyo Vice is that the camera
is so active in telling a story that the lighting isn't necessarily the most
important thing. "
Mann adds, " The kineticism John's talking about is that we put our
" Michael [Mann] is the last director who
would want to do postcard photography.
He does not want to repeat the usual
visual tropes. "
audience in [Jake's] shoes and see through [his] eyes as much as possible.
The first time he walks into his dream-come-true of the newsroom,
it's busy and chaotic. [The other characters] are looking at all of the multiplex
reactions that he's having, and you're seeing both his face and the
environment that he's entered for the very first time. "
Grillo has worked with Mann for more than 20 years, beginning as
a camera assistant, moving up to operator, and then advancing to the
rank of cinematographer for him on the Tokyo Vice pilot after serving as
a director of photography on numerous projects for other filmmakers.
Experience taught him he needed to be at the top of his game. " The task
of shooting a Michael Mann project involves a lot of preparation and
understanding of his methods - and his methods can be quite unorthodox.
I think he only sleeps like four hours a night, because the amount
of work he puts in is incredible. At the same time, when we're on set, it
feels like we're improvising. There's a documentary aspect to the way he
18 / JULY 2022
American Cinematographer - July 2022

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