Why Host And Hostess Clubs Are So Important According To Tokyo Vice Star Rachel Keller [Interview]

In Tokyo Vice, inspired by journalist Jake Adelstein’s memoir of his time in Japan, Ansel Elgort plays Jake as he makes his way through a story that takes him a little too close to the crosshairs of the Yakuza. Rachel Keller co-stars as Samantha Porter, an American expatriate who makes her living a hostess, getting close to both Jake and to various members of the Tokyo elite (including Yakuza enforcer Sato, played by Show Kasamatsu).

I sat down with Rachel to discuss filming the series in Tokyo during the height of the pandemic, her preparation for a role so embedded in a hidden side of Tokyo, and more.

Tell me about your experiences filming this in Tokyo?

Rachel Keller: I was just thinking about that, it’s a one-of-a-kind place. It’s such a magical, unique [place]. It’s steeped in history and tradition… it’s also this technologically advanced, crazy cool town, however we were there during COVID. It was super unique to be there at that time because there weren’t a lot of tourists. It was a particularly quiet time to be there, bars were closed… I would go back in a heartbeat. I loved living there.

I know what the pandemic did to L.A., so I can imagine it felt very surreal.

RK: Totally, but also I thought it was really conducive to work… We were all really focused on this thing that we were making. And I think we missed out on certain things, and Tokyo, like, the late night clubs that you sort of stumble into, but I think if you’re trying to look on the bright side, it did sort of help us focus. At least for me it was a pretty nice, focused kind of time.

I can imagine that that could be shaped into a good, controlled environment to shoot this type of project. You became involved relatively late in 2020, what was that like?

RK: I read for it, and I flew there very quickly. I felt behind because Ansel, and some of the other non-Japanese-speaking actors had already been studying the language. And it’s such a tricky language. I felt it was a pretty tight couple of months for me of just sort of like wrapping my head around at all. I like to kind of go at my own pace and go slowly towards something. So it was a little fast to get ready for it, but I was excited by it.

I love this genre, this crime setting in Japan in the 90s. It was such a specific time. I mean, even if you read that sentence you’re like ‘what? Okay. Yeah, that’s cool.’ And the Japanese hostess culture, there was so much. Even through the eight months of studying and living there I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. It’s such a deep, wonderful, fantastic thing to be researching this time… Japanese culture, Japanese language, why do these women work in this job? What does it mean to make a deal with the Yakuza? There’s just so many questions that that hopefully I think the show explores, and it’s really exciting because I feel like I haven’t really seen that before.

I also know that you had a crash course in Tokyo nightlife culture. Can you tell me a little bit about what that process was like? It seems like such a hidden world.

RK: Well, there were a few hostess clubs that were open at that time, so we got to visit a few and interview some of the hostesses. They were so generous with their time, and I also had a few phone calls with former hostesses and I read a bunch about it as well. It was fascinating not only because of the [questions] why and how, when, all of those questions, but also… what do you do to, like, keep your skin nice? And where do you get the clothes?

There was a hostess that was very generous with her time and went through all of the particulars, you know, how you pour, how you turn the bottle toward the client, how you fold the hot towel. That’s stuff was really interesting, and we ended up kind of working that into the script a little bit, like when I’m like ‘we light your cigarette,’ that stuff is all part of what we learned, and I just really wanted to get it right. I kept talking to the producers and the directors, and I was trying to get it right for these women and for the story and I wanted it to look and feel as real as we could make it.

It was so interesting to me, because it made sense in a way because of a long history of beautiful ceremonies, and yet it was very new to me.

RK: Yeah. Well it comes from the geisha culture, this sort of art of intimacy, this performance, this beautiful act of connection. Their work culture is so demanding that if a man or woman, there’s host clubs as well, if they have a limited amount of time to go out at night, and they go to a bar, then they maybe can flirt with someone. I mean, there’s a lot that makes sense in having somewhere that you go to and you pay for immediate connection and intimacy. And it’s consensual! Everyone knows the role that they’re playing, but a lot of these women explained that they have deep friendships with their clients and they really feel like they help. It’s sort of like therapy. And then on the other side, they can become independent financially as young women.

Absolutely, which seemed like a struggle for your character particularly.

RK: And lots of women all over the world, they’re in debt somewhere or there’s just absolutely no way for them to become financially independent on their own. There are some horrific stories, and we do portray one in our show, but every single woman I talked to love their job. I think that’s important to talk about too, that it can be a really fantastic way for a young woman to become financially independent.

Tokyo Vice is based on a memoir but it is clearly fictionalized, how does your character relate to the source material?

RK: In the book, Jake befriends a hostess who rides a motorcycle, but again it is sort of fictionalized version of her and some of the other hostesses that he had friendships in his time in Japan.

So kind of an amalgamation and fictionalization of a few different people.

I think so. Yeah.

Why do you think Samantha was an essential character to telling the story?

Oh, well, I think it’s pretty apparent that there are two American people in this show, and you get to see some of the true things about being an American, that sort of blind ambition through Samantha and through Jake. But I also think, as a woman working for herself, wanting and needing something for herself in the Mizu shōbai, in the nightlife of Japan, you get to tie this world of journalism into the Yakuza, and she’s there to take care of herself and the women around her. I’ve never even thought about if it’s essential, but I guess it is for all of those reasons.

Your character starts out a Missionary and she leaves everything behind to live her life in Tokyo. What is it about Tokyo that speaks to her so strongly?

RK: *laughs* Probably that it’s an island, and it’s where she was. I think when you’re a missionary, when you’re 18, or 19, and you’re sent somewhere, you can be sent anywhere as a Mormon missionary and that’s [just] where she was sent. I think that’s the practical reason. If it had been South Africa, [its] South Africa. She could maybe throw a stone in the lake this way, and then run the other way and hide from something that she just can’t go back to. I think she’s excited by it.

As a Mormon, I think there’s so much about being a woman, and being expressive as a young woman, is that is quieted, so I think she felt she felt the promise and the potential of the liberation in this city. And if you are in Japan, and you are blonde, you get a particular kind of attention. I think that was thrilling to her maybe, [and] I also think that this job that she found suddenly became the answer to, you know, to living kind of under the thumb of a really kind of extremely religious family and church.

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Tokyo Vice is available on HBO Max.