Typically in heist series, the team pulls off one big hit before giving up. But in Tokyo scammersThe team behind the heist embarks on it because the team leader gets a visceral thrill out of doing it. That’s one of the things that sets this show apart from others in the heist genre.
TOKYO SCAMMERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: In a wooded area of North America, a Japanese man tells one of his fellow elk hunters that he is a land scammer. A bear attacks the guide and the Japanese man shoots it in the mouth as the animal heads towards him.
The essence: Harrison Yamanaka (Etsushi Toyokawa) tells this story to his protégé, Takumi (Go Ayano), recalling the ecstasy he felt at that moment. He invites Takumi to become a land scammer; after all, a land scammer ruined Takumi’s life, so “This time, why don’t you push someone else into hell?”
Land scammers find an impostor posing as a land seller, negotiate a deal with a buyer, and disappear once the money is transferred. It’s a complex operation; Harrison’s team needs a negotiator like Takumi, a legal advisor like Goto (Pierre Taki), a master forger like Nagai (Shota Sometani), a person like Reiko (Eiko Koike) to find and train the imposters, and an informant like Takeshita (Kazuki Kitamura) to find opportunities.
We see the team in action as they set up a man named Sasaki (Takeo Gozu) to pose as the elderly owner of a property the team wants to “sell.” Goto and Reiko wonder why Harrison wants this somewhat senile man to act as an impostor, but Harrison has his reasons. He’s an experienced land scammer, having done so during the economic bubble of the 1980s. The police have caught him and his team before, but they were never able to make the charges stick, mainly because in the previous case, the impostor had dementia and couldn’t match his statement to anyone else’s.
The group has found a target for the property, a company called Mike Homes, and although their negotiator is tough and even asks the old man which supermarkets he goes to in his neighborhood, Takumi and Goto figure out ways to avoid the questioning and all the paperwork (expertly forged by Nagai, including the owner’s seal) is signed and the money is transferred.
It’s a big haul — 1 billion yen (about $6.5 million) — but Harrison wants the group to go for a bigger target next time, citing the ecstasy and thrill of going for a haul that’s “so big there’ll be dead bodies everywhere.” Takeshita knows of one such site, which sits behind a temple, is owned by an elderly nun who’s unwilling to sell, and is worth 10 billion yen (about $65 million) on the open market.
What shows will it remind you of? Of many ways, Tokyo scammers It’s more or less a large-scale heist program. The Money Heist and Gold.
Our opinion: Based on the book of the same name by Ko Shinjo, Tokyo Scammers As we’ve already said, it plays out like a heist show. Basically, it’s about a group of thieves and con artists, each of whose members has a different talent, and they’re preparing to get the biggest loot of their lives.
The fact that this group isn’t robbing a vault or a museum, but basically scamming companies into buying land they don’t own, makes for a bit of an interesting twist to the series. But the dynamics are the same: team members have their own stories, the leader is interrogated, a trusted confidant of the leader suspects everyone else, and law enforcement is after the leader despite him being elusive so far.
Watching the first con play out was a nice introduction to how skilled the team is and sets the stage for the larger con that will take up the rest of the season. The characters are skilled at what they do and Harrison has tricks up his sleeve that help things go off. Though from what we’ve seen, those tricks are made more dramatic by the show’s editing than anything else.
There’s also a reason Harrison orders the team to recruit high school seniors to be imposters, and one of the reasons is that they can’t betray them if they get caught, and they’re usually not in a state where they can be tried. Sasaki’s fate speaks to perhaps another reason he likes to recruit these people, but we’re not quite sure where that aspect of the story is going.
Sex and skin: None so far.
Parting shot: Harrison drinks whiskey while watching Sasaki’s fate unfold on a video.
Sleeping Star: If anyone does, it’s Pierre Taki as Goto, who seems to be a master at redirecting targets when they express even the slightest bit of doubt.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: The show’s director zooms in on the label on the bottle of Scotch that Harrison is drinking. Is it advertising or simply an indication of his expensive tastes?
Our calling: PASS IT ON. Tokyo scammers It’s basically a heist show, but it’s a heist show that has put together a pretty interesting heist with a pretty interesting team of scammers trying to get their hands on a big loot.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV addict. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
