Matt Wales
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With Amazon’s live-action TV adaptation of Like A Dragon/Yakuza fast approaching, the streaming service has shared a first proper trailer for those wanting to get a better look at its exuberant chaos ahead of its 24th October arrival on Prime Video.
Like A Dragon: Yakuza, as the series is known, spans two different time periods – 1995 and 2005, to be exact – as it charts the life of protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, a “fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity”.
“In 1995, eager to escape their restrictive lives, Kiryu and his friends, Nishiki, Yumi, and Miho plan a heist at a local arcade,” explains Amazon. “However, the arcade is under the control of the Dojima Family, a powerful yakuza organisation that rules Kamurocho… Meanwhile, in 2005, Kiryu is set to be released from prison. He learns from Detective Date that his friends are in danger and decides to return to Kamurocho to protect them. However, their friendship has deteriorated, as tensions between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance are at a boiling point.”
Kiryu’s tale is interwoven with “dramatic stories [the games] have not been able to explore”, all focusing on the “dark underworld of the yakuza” and the “universal theme of family not only through bloodline but also through ties between yakuza bosses and their underlings, orphans and their caretakers, as well as mentors and students”.
For this particular live-action adaptation (a Takashi Miike-directed movie released back in 2007), Kazuma Kiryu is portrayed by actor and model Ryoma Takeuchi, with Masaharu Take on directorial duties. You can get a glimpse of what’s to come in the new 90-second trailer above.
Amazon will be hoping Like A Dragon: Yakuza sees at least some of the success enjoyed by its live-action adaptation of Fallout earlier this year, which was watched by 65m people in its first two weeks. Like a Dragon might not be quite as immediately recognisable as the Fallout brand, but it’s hardly an unknown quantity, having sold over 21.3m units worldwide.
Sega recently announced the next game in the long-running series, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which is exactly as delightfully bonkers as it sounds.