Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers,’ a group of scammers devise a plan to get billions of yen by defrauding a major housing company. The story unfolds from the criminals’ point of view, and we get to see all the planning in motion and how ready the criminals are to secure their con and get the money. One of the things that they have to do to make sure the plan goes forward smoothly is to force the services of a male host club in Tokyo and make him do their bidding. But for that, the criminals have to study their target, which means spending a lot of time in the club. It becomes a major location in the series for a couple of episodes. Interestingly, the scenes were filmed in a real nightclub.
The Fictional Crazy Love Club was Lensed in a Real Club
As the name suggests, ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ takes place entirely in Tokyo, which becomes an important element of the story. The criminals must know every nook and cranny of the city to find places they can sell, or at least pretend to sell, and then run away with the money. This means that the city becomes a character in the story and is more of an accomplice to the criminals, working in their favor most of the time. To get the city’s character right, the crew set camp across real locations to film the show, presenting Tokyo in as real a light as possible. The same holds true for filming the scenes regarding the Crazy Love Club.
Like other locations in the story, the crew set camp in a real nightclub to film the scenes that feature Kaede and his male host club. According to the show, Crazy Love is located in the Shinjuku Kabukicho region, and the crew likely used one of the many clubs in the locale to create the fictional club. However, they gave the place a bit of a makeover to make it seem more in line with what a male host club would look like.
In the show, the club also functions as a hotel with lavish rooms, where Kaede and his clients entertain themselves. The scenes with the hotel rooms were filmed in a different location than the club, but to suit the purposes of Kaede’s club, it was essential to make both places seem to be in the same building. This allowed the crew to employ the place’s ambiance to give the audience a better context of what Kaede does and what it will take to get him to comply. As Takumi goes undercover at the club, we get to look at it more closely.
Read More: Tokyo Swindlers: Is Kouan-ji Temple a Real Place in Tokyo?
