The Amazon Like A Dragon: Yakuza cast didn’t do their homework

At Amazon's request

Prime Video

The cast of the upcoming Amazon Like A Dragon: Yakuza series was asked not to play Sega’s Yakuza games before filming the Prime Video show, so they went in with only as much knowledge of the source material as they gained from cultural osmosis. Ryoma Takeuchi, the actor playing Kazuma Kiryu, made the comments during a San Diego Comic-Con interview with GamesRadar, where co-star Kento Kaku, who plays Akira Nishikiyama, said they wanted to preserve and recreate the series’ “spiritual elements.”

Takeuchi said he wanted to play the series and had a mind to start before filming began, but the show’s producers had other ideas in mind.

“I know these games - everybody in the world knows these games,” he said. “But I haven't played them. I'd like to try them but they had to stop me because they wanted to - for the character in the script - explore from scratch. That's why I decided not to play.”

“We decided we would make sure we would do our own version, relive the characters, take their spiritual elements, and embody them on our own,” Kaku said. “There was a clear line we wanted to draw but everything on the bottom was respect.”

Kaku’s comment has me more curious than ever about what Amazon has in store. Nishikiyama’s “spiritual elements” are straightforward enough, even if you take his personality from one of the best Yakuza games, Yakuza 0, into account. Kiryu, though – that’s a different story. There’s a lot more going on with him than most Yakuza characters, and how much of his personality you see and understand depends on which side stories you end up doing.  

Still, a fresh perspective unburdened by expectations is often better than one that tries to recreate something you really can’t make happen outside of a video game. Here’s hoping it turns out better than the Borderlands movie, at least.