TOKYO BURST: CRIME CITY: Eiji Uchida Grows ‘The Roundup’ Cinverse Into Japan With Official Teaser Trailer
…And just like that, the first official teaser trailer is out for Eiji Uchida’s Tokyo Burst: Crime City from Kadokawa. The first bunch of the official cast for this Japanese-Korean production has also been announced with actors Koshi Mizukami (Out, Wind Breaker), and TVXQ member Yunho (Disney+’s “Low Life” and “Race”), along with Uhm Ki-jun (Killer Toon, SBS’s “The Escape of the Seven: Resurrection”), and Sota Fukushi (Bleach, Fuji TV’s “Tokyo PD”), with the involvement of none other than Korean actor Don Lee himself as an associate producer to help the film build his The Roundup cineverse.
Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district, the devil’s capital of East Asia…
Wearing a sukajan jacket and sporting an impressive afro, he strides with ease. He’s a rookie detective at Shinjuku Police Station, Aiba Shiro (Mizukami). Born and raised in Kabukicho, Aiba is a former gang leader whose physical strength and hot-bloodedness have led him to get into trouble.
One day, ace detective Choi Si-woo (Yunho) of the Korean National Police Agency is dispatched to Shinjuku Police Station in pursuit of internationally wanted criminals Murata Renji (Fukushi) and his gang. From the very first day they met, the two were incompatible and quickly became entangled. However, rumors of Murata and his gang infiltrating Kabukicho led to the impromptu team-up to conduct a joint investigation.
As the investigation progresses, the possibility of a major conflict between militant yakuza and Kabukicho’s largest host group emerges, and it is discovered that Murata and his team are heavily involved in it. What’s more, behind the scenes, there is the presence of national power…
Uchida directs from a script he penned with Tatsuro Mishima (Netflix’s City Hunter) for a story set in Kabukicho’s seedy district, and we got a smidgen of that in an announcement teaser last month. On Tuesday via Japan time, Kadokawa and BY4M STUDIO revealed a teaser trailer that shows off a little more of Uchida’s ambitions to introduce the same hard-hitting, crimefighting vibe to expand the world culminated thusfar in the current four-film franchise with Lee.
That especially means Uchida didn’t set out to try and clone the star of the original, as much as he’s expanding the universe. This possibly coincides with Lee’s earlier-stated plans to make a total of eight films for the franchise, although the passage of time didn’t predict a Japanese-Korean production for those of us on the outside looking in. Really, the only taste we had of a Japanese proponent in The Roundup franchise thusfar was the addition of actor Munetaka Aoki in director Lee Sang-yong’s third entry with The Roundup: No Way Out, so it’s feasible to believe Lee and those involved had it in mind to make the most of the momentum here. And you know what? No complaints from me!
Tokyo Burst: Crime City will release in Japan on May 29. Check out the teaser trailer below:
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