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Tokyo Vice: Show Kasamatsu on Sato's Journey, Crossover Success & More

Show Kasamatsu spoke with us about finding Sato's balance in Season 2 of Max's Tokyo Vice, the Sato/Sam dynamic, crossover success & more.

Since bursting into the Japanese entertainment scene in 2014, Show Kasamatsu has been garnering attention for his TV and film work. With 50 credits to his name, Kasamatsu's work has expanded to international audiences thanks in large part to streaming. US audiences certainly took notice of his work on the horror thriller Gannibal on Hulu and the Max crime drama Tokyo Vice. In J. T. Rogers's series based on Jake Adelstein's memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, the series follows Jake (Ansel Elgort), who works his way into Meicho Shumbun, Japan's largest newspaper. On top of his rigorous test, he's bound by the unwritten rules of police culture and how their dealings with the criminal underworld of the Yazuka. The series not only tells Jake's story but also features the many lives affected by the Yakuza, including Sato (Kasamatsu), an enforcer in the Chihara-kai yakuza, and Samantha Porter (Rachel Keller), an American missionary-turned-host in Japan who relies on her resiliency and intuition to survive. Kasamatsu spoke to Bleeding Cool through a translator about Sato's relationship with his one-time love Samantha, how he channels his empathy to play Sato, and taking the next bold step in his career.

Tokyo Vice: How Show Kasamatsu Finds Balance in Sato's Yakuza Life

Bleeding Cool: Your character had an interesting journey from Tokyo Vice season one to two. Can you break down his and Samantha's journeys going into it, with Sam having a deal with the Yakuza for her club to be built and Sato's development trying to recover from his stabbing?

Kasamatsu: As you know, the Sato character is something not ordinal. He wanted to see the audience catch that moment of what he's going through and he's feeling unstable, which is the key to this season's story and to Sato's relationship with Samantha is also unstable. Maybe people will think, "It's going to be like this or what?" It's grabbing the audience's heart for sure.

Playing such a character on the brink and always having trouble with balancing his conscience and loyalty to the Yakuza, I wanted to ask how challenging it was to kind of play into that for Sato?

The most important thing that I must do to play Sato is that, as Show [the actor], I need to find something in common between Sato and himself. I find a lot of similarities in the characters playing Yakuza and being an actor. That relationship with that occupation is like what the Yakuza would feel and what the actors would feel. Sato is not sure if he's doing the right thing or not, but at the same time, I am on set. It's not a struggle, but trying to look for the right answer on set. Those things were similar, so it was interesting to play the role.

How has a series like this helped you evolve as an actor, and what has done for your career?

Joining a series like [Tokyo Vice] is my first international project, and it's been an interesting experience, everything about it. During that journey, I found a U.S. manager and a CAA rep. Now I have a new goal to work on more international projects like this. That brought me a lot to do. Of course, one of them I am working on my English right now. It's not easy, but learning has been part of enjoying this journey through this series.

The season two, two-episode premiere of Tokyo Vice, which also stars Ken Watanabe, Hideaki Itō, Rinko Kikuchi, and Tomohisa Yamashita, streams on February 8th on Max with new episodes on Thursdays.

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