‘Tokyo Vice’ Producer Alex Boden Details Challenges, Opportunities in Japan Production Landscape
variety.comNaman Ramachandran Alex Boden, producer of Max/Wowow series “Tokyo Vice,” outlined the hurdles and triumphs of filming the first U.S.
studio streamer series shot entirely in Japan during a keynote at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The keynote was delivered as part of a Motion Picture Association event at the festival.
Created by J.T. Rogers and starring Ken Watanabe, Ansel Elgort, Rachel Keller and Kikuchi Rinko, the series followed a Western journalist working for a publication in Tokyo who takes on one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses.
Boden spent nearly two years in Japan producing both seasons of “Tokyo Vice.” Before production began in 2020, several international producers had advised against shooting entirely in Japan, citing lack of incentives, studio availability and complex permission processes. “They’d gone to other countries like New Zealand for ‘The Last Samurai,’ Germany for ‘Speed Racer,’ Taiwan for ‘Silence’ – anywhere else but Japan,” Boden explained. “Filming on location in Japan was clearly a special experience to be treated with extreme caution, only if you really have to, was the clear message.” The production faced significant challenges. “Uniquely in Japan, each location has its own location manager to look after the location owner from start to finish, out of respect to the owner, sending a substitute doesn’t really work,” Boden explained. “We had many locations in the center of the city – Shibuya, Akasaka, Shinjuku, Kabukicho – where we filmed in and around real host and hostess clubs with crowds everywhere.
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