Hit Japanese Video Game Is Now a Streaming Series Aiming for Global Appeal 

Japanese actors Ryoma Takeuchi (R) and Kento Kaku (L) speak during an interview for Amazon Prime Video’s “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” on the sideline of Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 27, 2024. (AFP)
Japanese actors Ryoma Takeuchi (R) and Kento Kaku (L) speak during an interview for Amazon Prime Video’s “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” on the sideline of Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Hit Japanese Video Game Is Now a Streaming Series Aiming for Global Appeal 

Japanese actors Ryoma Takeuchi (R) and Kento Kaku (L) speak during an interview for Amazon Prime Video’s “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” on the sideline of Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 27, 2024. (AFP)
Japanese actors Ryoma Takeuchi (R) and Kento Kaku (L) speak during an interview for Amazon Prime Video’s “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” on the sideline of Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 27, 2024. (AFP)

Amazon Prime Video’s “Like a Dragon: Yakuza,” which premieres in October, has all the glorious fare of a classic mobster story — bloody fistfights, beautiful women, expensive cars, muscle and flashy suits.

Based on a popular Sega video game that debuted in 2005, the story centers around Kazuma Kiryu, a gangster with a heart of gold. But the latest version has evolved to appeal to global audiences today, according to its stars and production team.

“We weren’t going for another copy of the original but wanted to create it anew, while paying respect to it, but exploring it at a deeper human level,” said Ryoma Takeuchi, who plays Kiryu.

“We’re taking the concept that’s the foundation of the hit game and making a modern human drama people can more easily identify with,” he said.

The role turned out to be the most challenging and time-consuming of his career, including losing weight, preparing for the fight scenes and developing the character, as well as the arduous filming itself.

Masayoshi Yokoyama, executive producer at Sega studios and the game’s screenwriter, hopes longtime fans will be pleasantly surprised at the new twists and turns of the series, while newcomers may gain an interest in his game.

“To look back, the original is like an old samurai movie, while this dramatizes a new kind of sensibility,” he said.

“Like a Dragon,” is the universal coming-of-age saga, except set in a fairytale world of a fictitious Japan. The narration spans two decades, skipping back and forth between 1995 and 2005.

The characters, including Kiryu’s buddy from their orphanage days, Akira Nishikiyama, are filled with a steadfast belief in honor, justice and loyalty, as well as courage in the face of danger.

It’s not designed for the faint-hearted. Each of the six episodes goes from one superbly choreographed violent scene to another, with hardly a moment to take a gasp.

But the innocent love that the heroes, and the heroines, show to each other is the driving force of “Like a Dragon,” despite the yelling, kicks and gunshots.

“The story of ‘Like A Dragon’ contains eternal themes, like love, human relationships and betrayal that everyone can relate to. So rather than its being old or new, it’s really mainstream,” said Kento Kaku who plays Nishikiyama, known as Nishiki.

Retelling the story in an age where streaming entertainment connects audiences worldwide simply translates to perfect timing, said Kaku.

Erik Barmack, the executive producer, stressed the franchise offers something that’s made it enormously successful not only in Japan but elsewhere.

“Our belief is that it’s because the characters themselves have a lot of heart. It’s not some cold existential crime story,” he said.

“It’s about why relationships can go astray, even among people who love each other.”



Richard Linklater’s Ode to the French New Wave Enchants Cannes

(L-R) Aubry Dullin, director Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch and Guillaume Marbeck attend the photocall for "Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)" during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 18 May 2025. (EPA)
(L-R) Aubry Dullin, director Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch and Guillaume Marbeck attend the photocall for "Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)" during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 18 May 2025. (EPA)
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Richard Linklater’s Ode to the French New Wave Enchants Cannes

(L-R) Aubry Dullin, director Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch and Guillaume Marbeck attend the photocall for "Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)" during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 18 May 2025. (EPA)
(L-R) Aubry Dullin, director Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch and Guillaume Marbeck attend the photocall for "Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)" during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 18 May 2025. (EPA)

When Richard Linklater first started thinking about making a film about the French New Wave, he figured he'd show it all everywhere except one place.

"I thought: They'll hate that an American director did this," Linklater said Sunday. "We’ll show this film all over the world, but never in France."

But Linklater nevertheless unveiled "Nouvelle Vague" on Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" to the very heart of the French film industry. It was, Linklater granted, an audacious thing to do.

And "Nouvelle Vague" went down as one of the biggest successes of the festival. At a Cannes that's been largely characterized by darker, more portentous dramas, "Nouvelle Vague" was cheered as an enchanting ode to moviemaking.

"Nouvelle Vague" is an uncanny kind of recreation. In black-and-white and in the style of the French New Wave, it chronicles the making of one of the most celebrated French films of all time. With sunglasses that never come off his face, Guillaume Marbeck plays 29-year-old Godard as he's making his first feature, trying to launch himself as a film director and upend filmmaking convention.

Linklater's movie, which is for sale at Cannes and competing for the Palme d'Or, is in French. It not only goes day-by-day through the making of "Breathless," it endeavors to capture the entire movement of one of the most fabled eras of moviemaking. Truffaut, Varda, Chabrol, Melville, Rohmer, Rossellini and Rivette are just some of the famous filmmakers who drift in and out of the movie.

Linklater told reporters Sunday that he wanted audiences to feel "like they were hanging out with Nouvelle Vague in 1959."

"It was an old idea of some colleagues of mine," said Linklater. "Thirteen years ago, we started talking about it. We're just cinephiles Austin, Texas, who love this era, and it's meant so much to me in my filmmaking. It represented freedom and the notion of the personal film. I've made a lot of films, and I've always felt if you do it long enough, maybe you should make one film about making films."

The stars of "Breathless" — Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg — are played by Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch, respectively, in "Nouvelle Vague." With precision, Linklater captures them making some of the most famous shots from "Breathless" with a visual style and camera movements typical of that time.

"We couldn’t work quite as fast. We had sound and things," said Linklater, chuckling. (Godard dubbed sound after shooting.)

"It was a crazy idea and I haven’t really ever seen a film exactly like this. I said: We’re making a film from 1959 but it’s not a Godard film," said Linklater. "You can’t imitate Godard. You fail. But we could imitate the style of the time."

In "Nouvelle Vague," Godard is surrounded by doubts — Seberg is notably unsure of the project — but he stubbornly sticks to his instance on spontaneity. There's no real script, some shooting days just last a few hours and lines are improvised on the spot. In one fittingly moment where Godard tells his actors just to quote Humphry Bogart movie lines, he explains: "Not plagiarism. Homage."

Linklater's own homage in "Nouvelle Vague" brought him back to his early days as a filmmaker. His first films — "Slacker,Dazed and Confused,Before Sunrise" — have much of the independent spirit of the New Wave, he said.

"Making this film all these later, I felt like I erased my own history," said Linklater. "I was going back to being in my late 20s making my first film. I told a friend last night: I felt like I was 28 years old making this film."