Kaettekita Abunai Deka – Perfecting the Nostalgia Grab – Analog Housou

It’s fair to say that many fans of Japanese pop culture get into it via either anime or manga, or even video games to some extent. After that initial hook some may venture deeper, exploring music, film, fashion, or many of the other granular facets of the culture. I’m shooting from the hip here, but it seems as if Japanese TV dramas have always been an extremely niche category under the Japanese pop culture umbrella. While I do remember hastily downloading fansubs of Densha Otoko back in the day, and I want to say that Crunchyroll had (has?) some selection of Japanese dramas on its service, the medium seems mostly unearthed by the greater fandom. This of course does not account for tokusatsu, which seems to have taken on a life of its own, most likely thanks to its close connection to anime.

In less words, it feels as if there’s not much buzz around Japanese dramas among western fandom compared to other parts of Japanese pop culture. And when it comes to cop dramas from the Shōwa era, the amount of western fans aware of this stuff can probably be counted on one hand. Among such obscure titles is Abunai Deka (Dangerous Cops, shortened as Abudeka in Japanese), which stands out as an excellent example of an old Shōwa era cop show that I want more people to know about. Why? Well, because since starting in 1986, it’s become a staple of Japanese entertainment that continues to this day, making its mark on TV, film, music and more. I first got into Abunai Deka thanks to it being parodied in Osumatsu-san season three as Yaritai Deka, in which they had good fun riffing on many of the series’ tropes. Given that I caught that episode of Osumatsu in the midst of Covid with nothing but time on my hands, I started to dig deep into Abudai Deka itself, and eventually found myself watching the full 76-episode TV run, and all of the 7 films that were out at the time. 

Until recently, I thought I had all of the Abudeka that could ever exist under my belt, but Toei had other plans. This year, the latest film in the series, Kaettekita Abunai Deka (or Abudeka is Back, as stylishly written in English on the poster) was released in Japan to high acclaim. As a junior Abudeka fan, in this post I’ll be dropping my takes on this latest installment in the series. 

But before going any further, I should probably explain what Abudeka is all about. The series is set in the port town of Yokohama, specifically at a police station by the docks. The police station is home to many weirdo cops, and among them are our main characters Takayama Toshiki (AKA Taka, played by Tachi Hiroshi) and Ōshita Yūji (AKA Yūji, played by Shibata Kyōhei). They are a duo known particularly for taking matters in their own hands, usually resulting in collateral damage, and a good yelling-at from their boss. If this sounds familiar, it’s likely because the same TV producer behind the anime Dirty Pair also worked to bring Abudeka to life, so it’s probably best to think of Taka and Yūji as the male equivalents of Kei and Yuri–especially when it comes to their appetite for the opposite sex (and their lack of success in getting anywhere with regards to same). Other cops on the force include their kōhai Machida Tōru (Nakamura Tōru), juvenile crimes cop (and the token female sidekick) Mayama Kaoru (Asano Atsuko), and interrogation expert Tanaka Fumio (AKA Naka-san, played by Bengal). While not a constant antagonistic force in the series, the gang is regularly put up against the Ginsei Kai, a Yakuza group controlling vice in Yokohama. There are many other characters that appear in the series, but for the sake of focusing on the film in question, I’ll only go over the characters that make appearances this time around. Eventually I do want to do a huge feature on Abunai Deka, but that’ll be for another time.

Spoilers for Abudeka lore incoming, but at the very end of the previous film, Saraba Abunai Deka (Farewell, Dangerous Cops), Taka and Yūji eventually find themselves working as private detectives in New Zealand, off the Yokohama Police force after one of the most intense confrontations of their career. In Kaettekita, we find them back at the familiar docks of Yokohama. Why? Because apparently Yūji punched some cop. Or Taka was trying to stop a bank robber… while being mistaken for a bank robber? In the end, they decide it doesn’t matter why they were kicked out of the country, and look forward to enjoying the last chapter of their detective lives on their home turf. Of course, things immediately go pear-shaped when a Japanese lawyer making his return home from Hong Kong is murdered in cold blood by a local group of Chinese mafia. These murders continue, with the targets typically being men of high corporate stature. 

We eventually learn that a young man named Kaidō Takumi (Nishimura Taichi), CEO of a growing startup, is controlling the Chinese mafia headed up by Liu Fei Long (Kishitani Goro), and is likely the real culprit behind the murders. He also happens to be the bastard child of the Ginsei Kai leader who Taka killed in the third Abudeka film, Mottomo Abunai Deka, and is trying to make his way up the corporate world with his underworld connections, all the while holding politicians and the police in his clutches. Of course, Taka and Yūji immediately catch wind of these machinations upon their return to Japan.

When trying to set up their new detective agency, Taka and Yūji quickly get their first client in the form of a young woman named Ayaka (Tsuchiya Tao) looking for her mother–a woman named Natsuko, who was a jazz singer at a club in town decades ago. Furthermore, Ayaka seems to think that either Taka or Yūji could be her dad. In privacy, both Taka and Yūji admit to having a fling with Natsuko right around the time when Ayaka was born, adding credence to her claim. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Stella Lee (Kichise Michiko) seems reluctantly in the company of Kaito and the mafia, and looks like someone Taka and Yūji may know from long ago. Tensions start to rise as Taka and Yūji poke their nose into Kaidō’s business, all the while searching for Ayaka’s mother.

Admittedly, this is quite a run-of-the-mill story. But Abudeka has never been too heavy on plot. Many episodes of the TV show play it quite fast and loose with how each story develops, and the show is famous for having a lot of improvisation, fueling the charming interplay between the two main characters. As such, this plot is serviceable for delivering what we really want to see–Taka and Yūji fucking around and causing trouble. 

The duo has been away from their roles since 2016, but they manage to comfortably slip right back in. Even as guys in their mid-70s, they still have the same enchanting chemistry. In fact, much like fine wine, their rapport has only gotten better with time. Taka is forever the pretentious cool guy who has a knack for the ladies, while Yūji continues to be the lovable goofball with a one-liner for everything. Thrown into the mix is Ayaka, who had great potential to be extremely irritating, but melds with the duo well as their surrogate daughter. She makes her grand entrance on a motorcycle, wearing a leather jacket and tight jeans, immediately checking off many generic “spunky tomboy” boxes that define her character initially. However, she does manage to play off the veteran cop duo well, to the point where it doesn’t feel cringey when they’re taking selfies by the docks before cruising around town. While her characterization doesn’t always land the mark–especially when it comes to the more dramatic parts of the film–she does nicely fit herself into the team without it feeling forced. And hey, I don’t mind seeing her in nothing but a bath towel either. Yes, this film is sure to include some level of fanservice for all the desperate old Japanese men (and non-Japanese, such as yours truly) in the audience.

Nakamura Tōru returns as section chief Machida of the investigative division that Taka and Yūji used to work in. As mentioned above, he starts out as Taka and Yūji’s kōhai, but as the series progressed throughout the years, his character began to move up the ranks. As a result, for those conscious of Japanese social hierarchy, the interplay between Machida and his two senpai funnily evolves throughout the years. While Machida had been snarky from the beginning, he did ultimately always bend over backwards for Taka and Yūji, and regularly addressed them politely. Now as someone higher up in the police force, he talks to them quite casually and tries hard to leverage his power on the societal hierarchy to talk down to them. But ultimately, he’s still their kōhai, so he continues to help with their under-the-table requests, and generally supports them. Nakamura, having evolved into something of a loveable middle-aged dude over the course of his career, fits perfectly into this role as a hapless manager–but one with a good heart, and someone who takes things into his own hands in the face of pressure from his superiors who have less scrupulous motives.

Machida’s team is made up of a group of younger cops. They thankfully don’t play up the generation gap dynamic too much, but they are sure to have one of the youngsters say that he looked up a key piece of intel on TikTok. Among these younguns is Hayase Rika (Nishino Nanase), who plays something of a support role for the main duo, convincingly portraying a competent cop who suffers from some millennial-flavored imposter syndrome. 

Nishimura Taichi growls and snarls a lot as Kaidō, who’s honestly quite a one-note villain, but the whole “spoiled bastard son of a powerful Yakuza who wants to prove himself” angle does come through nicely in his performance. As such, seeing him constantly getting fucked over by the main duo is extremely satisfying. Kishitani Goro convincingly portrays the somewhat ambivalent lead of the Chinese mafia Liu Fei Long, who is torn between his alliance towards Kaidō, whose methods he doesn’t agree with, and an old begrudging friendship with Taka. His muscle, Huang Kai is portrayed by Fukami Motoki, who again is quite one-note but is a good choice to play a huge guy whose main purpose is to stand in the middle of a room and mow it down with uzis. I would like to note that I do wish they hired actual Chinese actors to portray the Chinese characters, because the accents do seem a bit goofy, and Liu Fei Long’s old-school “oriental” garb is a bit too on-the-nose. I understand that this is in keeping with Abudeka’s retro aesthetic, but given how well they brought other parts of the series into the modern day, I would have liked for them to try harder on this front.

Kichise Michiko stands around and looks either mysterious or stressed as Stella Lee. She doesn’t do much but act as the macguffin to underpin the characters’ backstories, but she carries herself as a refined woman from the Shōwa era, which is all she really needs to do here. Lastly, the film features bit roles from fan favorites Naka-san and Kaoru, who have essentially become running joke characters at this point in the series’ life. Naka-san, originally known for interrogating suspects, has hilariously become an information broker. Meanwhile, Kaoru continues to morph into the ultimate flashy Japanese obasan in hilariously stark contrast to how she used to be the cute female sidekick in the series’ original run.

As a nostalgia grab, it goes without saying that the film brings back all of your favorite old characters and throws in some guests to tell a new story. But what Kaettekita succeeds at is presenting these old characters in a new context, mainly Taka and Yūji. While they of course get chances to reclaim their old glory as the badass cops of Yokohama, Kaettekita gives us a chance to just chill with Taka and Yūji this time around. While the original series and subsequent film entries were sure to include scenes of the duo off duty enjoying drinks at some swanky bar or relaxing at some cafe, these scenes were typically short and brief bits of downtime within very action-heavy stories. 

If you’ve watched any Abunai Deka, you’ll know that Taka shoots hella bullets, and Yūji runs a hella lot. And while this film certainly has that–as I will outline in the following paragraph–I do appreciate how it takes the time to show us these iconic characters just enjoying their lives. There are a few scenes that just have Taka and Yūji chilling on the roof of their office sipping on fine liquor, shooting the shit. And with the introduction of Ayaka, we are treated to heartwarming scenes of them enjoying dinner together, creating a group chat, and leisurely driving around the city. There’s also a cute scene of Taka and Ayaka bonding over her bike as she tries to repair it. Fans of the series will know that one of Taka’s trademarks is jetting around on a motorcycle, so the scene is quite poignant for long-time viewers. Admittedly, many of these moments are so close to being too cheesy–especially when we get into the musical montages–but director Hara Hiroto leads with a steady hand, and manages to keep it feeling natural and genuine, ultimately giving us a satisfying look into a side of these iconic characters that we have never seen before. 

As alluded to above though, Abunai Deka is nothing without its action. However, unlike the most recent Indiana Jones film, which puts poor 80-something-year-old Harrison Ford under far too much physical stress, the action in this film is within the believable amount for these characters as we’ve come to know them. Yūji shows off some impressive punches and kicks against some members of the Chinese mob, and manages to make a slick getaway on foot as he is want to do. Of course, he does make some remark about being “too old for this shit,” but the film doesn’t lean too far into these gags to the point where they become stale. The gunplay is exciting and dynamic, and what we have come to expect from the division of Toei that brought us all the previous installments of Abudeka, and of course got its start with great action pieces such as Mottomo Kiken na Yugi. Taka mostly takes center stage during the shootouts, but Yūji is sure to get some shots in as well. That said, in general the amount of action is low compared to the typical Abudeka outing–and you know what? That’s fine! These guys are old, let them enjoy their time with their surrogate daughter while drinking fine liquor in the evening breeze. They fucking deserve it. And while I’m not sure if it qualifies as “action” per se, the murders carried out by Kaidō’s men are nice and grizzly, with either a lot of bloodshed or pyrotechnics, which makes for great contrast, as the film is want to smash cut from scenes of the group chilling to these scenes of chilling violence. 

Of course, a nostalgia grab is nothing without fanservice to those loyalists who have been closely following the series over the years. Nostalgic vehicles make a reappearance, and of course Taka gets a chance to blast a shotgun while riding on a motorcycle as he has done many times in the past. Among all the nods to the original series, the big show-stopping nostalgia grab scene is one featuring the duo in their younger days at the jazz club that the story centers around, given a full CG makeover to age them down 40 years. This is another area where the film walks a very fine line, but I feel it pulls it off perfectly. The scene doesn’t last too long, and is intentionally depicted in a dreamy manner, so it’s easier to buy into the CG depictions of Taka and Yūji in their mid-30s. And the most important thing is that it actually looks good–I watched this film twice on big screens, and there was no weird uncanny valley coming through seeing the duo portrayed as they were in the original series. It goes to show how the Japanese film industry has progressed–more or less catching up to the west–but since the budget for this film is probably also far lower than any US blockbuster, the scene is short and sweet. And it should be! I’ll mention it again, but that opening action set piece in the new Indiana Jones film was entirely too gratuitous. Yes, it was impressive, but it just made me want to watch those old films again. This scene gives you just the right amount to help you remember where these two iconic characters got their start, and doesn’t dwell on it for too long.

As a series that takes place in Yokohama, Abunai Deka has been a great way to experience the evolution of the city over the years. As you watch each progressive entry in the series, one notices new buildings pop up and certain areas being redeveloped. The film’s end crawl features the same footage used as the TV series ending sequence, which is a film reel depicting Taka and Yūji running through the area around Yokohama’s iconic Red Brick Warehouse buildings. Back in the mid-80s, this area was just a desolate section of Yokohama’s docks, with the buildings barely being used. While they don’t make an appearance in this film–likely because it’s impossible to get permission to film there these days–if you go to Yokohama now, you can witness firsthand how they have become centers of entertainment for visitors to the city. On the topic of filming permission, a lot of the film was actually not shot in Yokohama. In interviews with veterans on the series, many of them alluded to “shooting and running” when shooting the TV series. As a result, much of the original run of Abunai Deka is shot in a very rough and guerilla manner, which gives it a lot of its charm. This approach obviously cannot be done now, but the film is sure to include a bunch of iconic Yokohama locations in its exterior shots, and opens with a beautiful montage of aerial night shots showing off the city in all its glory. 

If I had to level one other complaint against the film, it would have to be that a pivotal plot point of the film involves the baddies trying to launch a terrorist attack on a major shopping center in the city–the same one I happened to be watching the film in for the first time–so I was hoping for an epic finale on the roof of that building, or something. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come to pass, and the final battle takes place on the docks, as we’ve seen many a time in Abunai Deka. Except for this time, it’s docks in Kobe pretending to be docks in Yokohama. Like, I get the circumstances, and they do a great job with what they have, but I do miss old Japanese films from the ‘70s and ‘80s where the staff filmed wherever they wanted. To hell with the consequences!

I mentioned him earlier, but I have to give props to director Hara Hiroto. He’s the son of Hara Takahito, who worked on a handful of episodes of the original series and many other hardboiled cop and detective dramas for Toei. The dude is just a year older than me so I can acutely imagine the pressure that must have been on this guy to succeed. He certainly seemed nervous during the on-stage greeting following the premier of the film. As I’ve alluded to earlier, he manages to successfully walk the fine line in delivering a good nostalgia grab where many other similar films fail–including other Abundai Deka films. In areas where the film could have fallen flat on its face, he delivers the proceedings in a way that is convincing and respectful to both the material and the expectations of the audience. Furthermore, his modern approach presents Abunai Deka in a slick and modern fashion unlike anything seen before in the franchise. All of the previous film entries were directed by legacy franchise directors, and his touch is really the breath of fresh air the franchise needed. Sure, I thought Saraba Abunai Deka was great, but it was written per the old tried-and-true formula, while directed by a veteran of the franchise, Murakawa Tōru. 

I want to give props to Hara for striking it out of the park on this one. The highest grossing entry in the Abunai Deka film series is the very first film–which will never be easily passed at a whopping 2,600 million JPY–but this film has surpassed Saraba, which until now was the second-highest grossing Abunai Deka film ever. And given the emergence of BL-tinged Taka and Yūji fanart on the internet since the film’s release, it’s safe to say he’s introduced the series to a whole new audience.  

Nostalgia grabs are tough, and many fail. While I don’t hate the new Indiana Jones film, I think the general consensus is that the series has failed twice in bringing itself into the modern day. And to be fair, Abunai Deka did have a turkey of a film in Mada Mada Abunai Deka in the early 2000s. But thankfully, this latest entry in the series succeeds wonderfully in reminding existing fans why the series is so great, while also drawing in new fans with its steady-handed modern approach. I’m happy for the series to end here, but writers on the film have confirmed that Toei is eager to make more. So long as it doesn’t involve Taka and Yūji in a retirement home, I’ll check it out. But personally, I feel Kaettekita Abunai Deka is the perfect note to go out on.