So with all of these fortunes being sunk into Television, so many millions that we're starting to see literal Billion dollar projects hit the small screen- (Okay, just the one so far- but you know someone is going to top Rings of Power at some point!) it blows my mind that we're not seeing more dream adaptations make their way to television! I mean we've got Halo, which was a dream a great many kept alive for years (how'd that one turn out for the dreamers out there, I wonder...) and recently Avatar got... another adaptation, because no matter what there cannot be a single version of Avatar that does the cartoon justice. (At least the show is better than literally every game that has come out bearing the 'Legend of Aang' name.) But why are people so deftly avoiding the one franchise so full of material, potential and adaptability that it's literally been on the stage already and received a low budget film? Good god, give us Like a Dragon!
Yakuza was one of the longest running action game franchises coming out of Japan, originating back in 2005 and carrying on the legacy of Japanese mobster drama films with a deftness that soon surpassed the source material. Heck, most western mobster dramas don't conjure up as memorable character moments, shocking twists and tear-jerking confrontations as your average Like a Dragon game! (And that's only partially because half of them star Jason Statham playing the exact same hardman geezer he's been his entire career. The man's 56- let him rest!) I've never shed more manly tears then when watching Kiryu proudly declare his own failings as a man before his sworn brother's loaded gun pointed at his face, or choked up tighter than when watching Kasuga hysterically plead with the last remnant of his family not to leave him alone. And these aren't even the moments that Yakuza is best known for!
Like a Dragon is known for it's zany eccentricities, the crazy side activities that can range from winning a live turkey from a bowling competition that Kiryu can't bring himself to kill and thus decides to make a real estate manager for one of his properties- to that same man, thirty years older, diving into the ocean in order to battle a mythical giant squid to the death with his machine-gun firing harpoon launcher. One moment you can find yourself unravelling a vast government cover-up that has been kept tightly under wraps since World War 2, and in the other you are literally Tiger Drop punching a leaping Tiger in the face. Just reading these descriptions alone is enough to tell you that these aren't the kinds of experiences that only appeal in the Interactive format- these moments would make one of the most memorably unhinged gangster shows of all time.
And what's more there is just so much material for an adaptation team to work through! It is honestly inhuman how many games that RGG have shot out in the last few years and I'm just waiting to learn about the secret human sacrifices they are performing in order to keep this pace going. But the consequence is that even writing dunces like the Game of Thrones Show Runners could leach off the amazingly emotionally intelligent characters, the off-kilter substories, the surprisingly deep side characters and the spuriously spontaneous side games until the cows come home! There's no need to rely on subpar imagination skills to fill in the blanks- RGG make games like a room full of crack addicts on computers! Someone should probably do a wellness check on them or something, I'm mildly concerned.
Kiryu Kazama is a character with all the screen presence of a leading man wrapped in behind the most senseless moral dilemma of all time. Said dilemma? He strives to live an honourable life where he treats people with respect and stands up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Also he is a member of the Yakuza. Not against his will, mind. Kiryu has had countless untold opportunities to leave the Yakuza behind and always ends up back with them in under a year. Not even literally legally dying and going underground as a secret agent called Joryu could keep him away from steam pressing a flashy suit and getting back to his 'Dragon of Dojima' duties! He's just addicted to the drama because he's a messy bitch like that, and I respect the hell out of it!
But even more than Kiryu himself, we need to see some of those classic unforgettable Villains come to screen! The tragic Nishikiyama and the dichotomy of Kiryu taking the fall in order to keep him out of prison knowing Nishiki could never survive there, only to learn that being outside in the Yakuza all by himself corrupted him just as surely. The honourbound golden-haired Ryuji and his obsession with inheriting the dragon through sheer skill. Mine and his terrible English. And of course, Ryo Aoki and his delightfully complex fall into a self loathing so powerful that man used it to take over the power pillars of every governing body in Japan, before getting therapy. Every one of them is a legend in their own right and would be just so incredibly fun to bring to live action life.
Not to mention the fact that these properties have already proven themselves in the past! There's a hilariously low budget Yakuza movie in which Majima murders several people, so that could probably use something of an update. (Also, I think they gave him an eyepatch on the wrong eye.) As I mentioned there is the Yakuza stage play, which is a spectacle in it's own right. There's also a proposed TV series of Judgement starring Takuya Kimura- the same guy who plays Yagami in the game. But... well- let's be honest that would be a small budget Japanese TV show. I love Thus Spoke Koshibe Rohan as much as the next guy, but if you wanna do this property justice you're gonna need a high Netflix budget or some equivalent!
If there is any scant slither of Justice to be had in this world, it will need to be forged out of the fires of the unequal. Gone, needs to be the billions funding trash, or the clearly transparent aspiring Sci-fi writers forcing their ill-fitting personally written narratives onto existing properties. (Poor Halo, man.) And whatsmore- give a chance to a property begging for an adaptation! Let Like a Dragon charm the live action world just as surely as it charmed the virtual world for it's astounding quality, variety, insanity and complexity. Let those who look upon gaming as the inferior artform, even after all this time, bask in the glory of everything they've squarely missed out on.
No comments:
Post a Comment