Tokyo Vice's Backstreet Boys Confusion: What Is "I Want It That Way" About?
Tokyo Vice's latest episode included some confusion over the meaning of the Backstreet Boys song "I Want It That Way," humorously highlighting the cultural differences between characters. Tokyo Vice is the latest original show from HBO Max and stars Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein, an American reporter in Japan in the late '90s. Adelstein works for the largest newspaper in the world and gets pulled into the underworld of the Yakuza during his investigations. Loosely based on the memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by the real Adelstein, the show co-stars Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Rinko Kikuchi, Shô Kasamatsu, Ella Rumpf, Shun Sugata, and Ayumi Tanida.
Tokyo Vice digs deep into the cultural differences between Adelstein and his Japanese colleagues, taking place at a time and era before smartphones or social media and when the Yakuza's influence and reach were much deeper than it is today. The show addresses the various societal archetypes as well, including the subservient roles forced upon women and the issue of suicide. Along with that, it explores multiple Tokyo Vice expat characters trying to fit into the Japanese way of life, including Elgort's Adelstein and Keller's Samantha Porter, who are both striving and struggling to live and work there as Americans.
Related: Tokyo Vice Yakuza Explained: History, Rituals & Real-Life Comparison
In the latest episode of Tokyo Vice season 1, episode 4, "I Want It That Way," the show highlights more of the cultural differences, including the interpretation of a famous Backstreet Boys song. While driving back from a meeting with a Yakuza oyabun, Sato (Kasamatsu) starts singing along to "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys, saying that no
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