Tokyo Vice's Backstreet Boys Confusion: What Is "I Want It That Way" About?
Tokyo Vice's latest episode included some confusion over the meaning of the Backstreet Boys song "I Want It That Way," humorously highlighting the cultural differences between characters. Tokyo Vice is the latest original show from HBO Max and stars Ansel Elgort as Jake Adelstein, an American reporter in Japan in the late '90s. Adelstein works for the largest newspaper in the world and gets pulled into the underworld of the Yakuza during his investigations. Loosely based on the memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by the real Adelstein, the show co-stars Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Rinko Kikuchi, Shô Kasamatsu, Ella Rumpf, Shun Sugata, and Ayumi Tanida.
Tokyo Vice digs deep into the cultural differences between Adelstein and his Japanese colleagues, taking place at a time and era before smartphones or social media and when the Yakuza's influence and reach were much deeper than it is today. The show addresses the various societal archetypes as well, including the subservient roles forced upon women and the issue of suicide. Along with that, it explores multiple Tokyo Vice expat characters trying to fit into the Japanese way of life, including Elgort's Adelstein and Keller's Samantha Porter, who are both striving and struggling to live and work there as Americans.
In the latest episode of Tokyo Vice season 1, episode 4, "I Want It That Way," the show highlights more of the cultural differences, including the interpretation of a famous Backstreet Boys song. While driving back from a meeting with a Yakuza oyabun, Sato (Kasamatsu) starts singing along to "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys, saying that no other band would have "the guts to do a song about a man and a woman doing that." Sato emphasizes the "that" of the song, implying that it's about sex, to which Adelstein laughs, saying that the song isn't about that. Later, Ansel Elgort's Adelstein asks his Japanese newspaper friends what they think the song is about, and they believe the same thing as Sato. Adelstein relents, shaking his head, but accepting that there's no convincing them otherwise.
The actual meaning of "I Want It That Way" has always been a source of confusion, however, even in the United States. The lyrics have been analyzed multiple times and the Backstreet Boys themselves have confided that the song doesn't make much sense. The amusing reason is that it was written by Swedish songwriter Max Martin, who barely spoke English at the time. Martin has written many hit songs, including star Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time," The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face," and Backstreet Boys' other big hit, "Everybody." Those songs, however, weren't hits because of the lyrics, so much as the beats and voices behind them. Interestingly, "I Want It That Way" was rewritten and redone to make more sense, but the group ultimately decided to go with the more confusing version as it simply sounded better.
The alternate version of the Backstreet Boys song (via YouTube) makes much more sense and clarifies that it's ultimately about a couple in love working through their issues of distance and lies in their relationship and that the singer wants to hear his significant other say that they want the same thing in their relationship, rather than the heartache and mistakes. Even that explanation can be somewhat confusing, but it makes more sense than the original version, which is ultimately really well-performed nonsense. That said, neither version makes any connection to sex or "wanting it that way" as an allusion to it, as Ansel Elgort's character tries to explain. As Americans are confused by the lyrics, it's not hard to imagine that a Japanese listener could misinterpret the song as being about sex. The entire construction of it is a perfect example of being lost in translation, which mirrors the themes of Tokyo Vice perfectly, making the funny moment a bigger commentary on the language barrier presented in the show.
New episodes of Tokyo Vice air Thursdays on HBO Max.