Mahjong at the movies?

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A mahjong parlour in the point-and-click video-game, Encodya. (2021) It's just scenery - you cannot enter.

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The setting is a cyberpunk "Neo Berlin" (cf. Akira's "Neo Tokyo") so yes, that is the Brandenburg Gate (and a flying car) in the background.

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A couple of mahjong tables in the Ruby Dragon (red dragon?) restaurant in The Last of Us Part II video-game. (2020)

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Looks like someone's been playing the mahjong equivalent of 52-card pickup!

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In the new video-game Stray (2022) you play as a cat in a future city of humanoid robots.

At one point you can find a couple of them playing mahjong.

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It doesn't end well when you try to join in - but at least you get a trophy.

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Lt. Columbo finds a mahjong set - and asks Patrick McGoohan's character what it is. Season 5, episode 3 (1975).

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Posted by u/bdzz on Reddit. See thread for short clip.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mahjong/comments/11a2mxv/the_only_proper_way_to_pronounce_mahjong/

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A yakuza takes a break from a game to count the protection money in Tokyo Vice. (2022)

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This recent TV drama series was inspired by the book of the same name by Jake Adelstein, his memoirs of working as a reporter on the crime beat - the first westerner to pass the stringent entrance exam to work at a major newspaper. I learnt about the book through the Yakuza video-game community and found it by chance at a small book-sale in London some years ago. I will probably re-read it soon.

A lot is familiar from the Yakuza games. The TV show is set in Tokyo - including Kabukicho - and the characters include several gangsters and hostesses. There's even a trip to a batting centre and a couple of rooftop showdowns.

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They play Hanafuda too.

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Back on Bob's Burgers. This is from season 11. (2020)

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If you want the latest gossip, you go to the ladies' mahjong club - in new Netflix series The Brothers Sun (2024).

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The club appears several times and Michelle Yeoh's character mentions mahjong another couple of times too.

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The yakuza still have their mahjong table - in the second (and final) season of Tokyo Vice. (2024)

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