![]() ![]() Almost every thread and character loops back into the narrative, which is a remarkable feat given just how much is squeezed into its short run. “Someone threw a stone a long way away, and we’re only just feeling the ripples,” a Yakuza boss says at one point. But where the former ends up unwieldy and nihilistic - owing to the noir tradition, perhaps - Giri/Haji tightly constructs a universe in which everything matters. And not unlike Tokyo Vice, Giri/Haji sets the table by laying down a dizzying number of narrative threads. Shootouts, conspiracies, and fish-out-of-water hijinks ensue. ![]() As Kenzo tries to untangle the mess, he’s aided in his quest by Sarah (Kelly McDonald), an exiled British police officer Rodney (Will Sharpe), a half-Japanese sex worker and Taki, who runs away from home to join her father in the U.K. Kenzo soon discovers that Yuto is, indeed, alive and well but now works for an enterprising British gangster and is very much responsible for the instigating murder. Once in London, things get even more complicated. Meanwhile, in classic detective-story fashion, Kenzo’s home life isn’t looking too hot either: Kenzo’s relationship with his wife, Rei (Yūko Nakamura), is strained his live-in mother and ailing father are indifferent to him and his teenage daughter, Taki (Aoi Okuyama), is adrift and acting out. Yuto, a Yakuza member previously presumed dead, is believed to be responsible for the killing, and Kenzo, working under orders from his police chief and one of the warring Yakuza bosses, is covertly sent to London to find out whether his brother is actually to blame. The series centers on a Tokyo detective, Kenzo Mori (Takehiro Hira, brooding), who’s tasked with tracking down his long-lost brother, Yuto (Yōsuke Kubozuka, sizzling), after a murder in London sparks an escalating conflict between rival Yakuza gangs in Japan. Where Tokyo Vice ends up unwieldy and nihilistic, Giri/Haji tightly constructs a universe where simply everything matters. The end result is an elegant cross-cultural production that not only feels radically new but diligently captures the thrills of both its inspirations. Originally produced for BBC Two and distributed internationally by Netflix (where you can stream it), Giri/Haji is an uncommonly smart show that stitches together two variations of the crime genre: the British gangster flick and the Yakuza epic. More than anything, though, it made me wish for more seasons of Giri/Haji, the criminally underrated 2019 British-Japanese gangster drama that, sadly, only ran for eight episodes. And to be fair, that has more to do with my personal fondness for Yakuza crime dramas than anything else the HBO Max series does make me wish we’d get more of them in this age of streaming abundance. Still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching Tokyo Vice. What was up with the suicides again? Did the Yakuza chief’s illness matter at all? Weren’t there angry Mormons looming somewhere? Sure, it’s supposed to be pulpy noir, but that doesn’t mean things have to be this incoherent. After an enticing opening half that slowly luxuriated in its ’90s-era Tokyo setting, the season disintegrated under the weight of its cascading plot threads, splayed in endless directions and mostly left unresolved. In the end, I found Tokyo Vice to be aggressively mediocre.
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