(TV SERIES) Tokyo Swindlers - An Entertaining Long Con Thriller Series Based on Popular Novel

I was intrigued about this new series on Netflix when I read its brief synopsis. When it was released two days ago, I just finished completing another series so I could begin watching immediately. As it was pretty short with only 7 episodes, I managed to finish it in two nights time. OK here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Harrison Yamanaka (Etsushi Toyokawa - Midway, Kingdom 2: Far and Away etc) was the leader of a land swindlers group working primarily in Tokyo by falsifying documents of land ownership and selling them to real estate developers. He had been nurturing his right hand man Takumi Tsujimoto (Go Ayano - Yu Yu Hakusho live version series, Shinjuku Swan etc) for the past five years, teaching him all the tricks to handle the scheme. They were also having other team members like Takeshita (Kazuki Kitamura - Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead live version series, Minazuki etc) the informer, Reiko (Eiko Koike - Rebirth, Legal High TV series etc) the imposters recruiter and Yoshio Goto (Pierre Taki - September 1923, Sanctuary TV series etc) the legal advisor. 

After a pretty successful job, Harrison decided to go for the largest scheme that had never been done before even though it was so dangerous that "might leave dead bodies behind". Meanwhile a senior detective named Tatsu (Lily Franky - The Naked Director TV series, Cottontail etc) and his rookie partner Kuramuchi (Elaiza Ikeda - Kakegurui part 1 and 2, Followers TV series etc) got wind of Harrison's earlier work and started investigating. Tatsu had known about Harrison for a long time but was never able to catch him and his crew.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series

End of Brief Story LIne

Well that was entertaining. This series to me felt a bit like a long heist, but instead of trying to steal something, it was to do a large scale con. The first episode was kind of an introduction of what or how land swindlers was done. Somehow I was able to grasp the methodology quickly which I think was a huge credit to the director Hitoshi One (Sunny: Our Hearts Beat Together, Elpis TV series etc). The story telling was pretty good with the intensity maintained throughout the whole series. 

During the closing credit, I noticed that it was based on the 2019 novel titled Jimenshitachi aka Tokyo Swindlers by Ko Shinjo.  After further searching on the internet, it turned out to be popular novel based on the recent land fraud scandal in Japan, so in a way it might have a little bit of truth in it. Anyway since it was based on thriller novel and not manga/anime, the people's behavior in the series were pretty normal and not excessive or over the top like some other Japanese series. So those who are not accustomed to such kind of series would definitely appreciate this more.

The story itself to me was very interesting. It was not slow built but the pace was not exactly very fast either. It felt just nice and as the series progressed, we got to know more and more of the characters. Aside from the two fantastic lead cast of Toyokawa who was amazing as Harrison and Ayano who was convincing as the intelligent Takumi with his dark past, there were also plenty of support cast. Some of them were Taro Suruga (Fixer TV series etc) as Maki the owner of Mike Homes, Koji Yamamoto (Touken Ranbu etc) as Aoyagi the director of Sekiyo House, Izumi Matsuoka (Will You Still Pledge Me Your Faithful Love TV series etc) as Kawai the owner of large vacant area in Tokyo, Antony (Love and Other Cults etc) as Takeshita's lackey Orochi and many more. All of them provided more colors and depth to the story.

The series was not solely focusing on the con but also the drama of the characters involved. Unlike other movies or series that showed the heist crew as the likable anti hero, this one did not exactly put them as the heroes of the story. I thought it was wonderful that it still showed what they did was against the law and there were huge repercussion to the victims. It was not exactly black and white characters but a bit of grey. Plus it had some surprising twist and shocking scenes as well. In general I liked all the episodes but I think the 4th was awesome and the finale was really great with lots of suspense. The 7th episode was the longest one too and it had a rather conclusive ending, so I do not think a second season is really required. 

All in all this is an enjoyable series to me. There was an intense feeling during the con, the excitement during the preparation, the interesting story and surprising twists. Btw there were few sex scenes to my surprise, although it was mildly explicit but no nudity involved. There were some drama on the characters but not the very emotional kind. It even had a bit of action as well, however do not expect the high octane type. Oh one funny thing in the series as it had few Indonesian characters, except not the kind that would make me proud LOL. So if you are in the mood of a different kind of long con where the line between good guys and villains was so thin that you would be in a dilemma who to root for, then you could certainly give this a try. But if you prefer a more standard heist series, then you might feel less excited about this one. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars