Giri/Haji is a 2020 Netflix series told mostly in Japanese.
2 out of 10 stars. This started out with an interesting plot but quickly devolved into more than a dozen separate storylines that were rather stupid. It was very British and considerably less Japanese.
Kenzo Mori is a Tokyo homicide detective. His most recent case is that of a murdered Yakuza member, the son of a warlord. And his dead brother Yuto is the chief suspect. He soon discovers that his brother faked his death, fled to London, and has been working there as a bodyguard for a gangster named Connor Abbott. Kenzo is ordered to go to London, search for clues, and report back to his boss in Tokyo. Since he has to have a reason for being in London, he poses as a foreign exchange student taking a forensics course from Sarah Weitzman. Once in London, Kenzo gets help from a gay male prostitute named Sidney Yamaguchi.
There are so many storylines told in this series and most of the dialogue is in Japanese so you’re reading subtitles too. But what really surprised me and what kind of ruined the ending was the last episode was told as a very awkward ballet. :0 That came out of nowhere and didn’t really go with anything.
Storyline 1. Yuto’s entrance into the Yakuza.
Storyline 2. Yuto’s love affair with his boss’s daughter which precipitated his “murder”.
Storyline 3. Kenzo’s relationship with his brother Yuto.
Storyline 4. Kenzo’s relationship with his wife and parents which directly conflict since his parents treat his wife like garbage and they all live in the same tiny Tokyo apartment.
Storyline 5. Kenzo’s relationship with his teenage daughter who follows him to London and gets into all kinds of trouble on her own.
Storyline 6. Kenzo’s relationship with Sidney which is very odd.
Storyline 7. Kenzo’s investigation.
Storyline 8. Kenzo’s relationship with Sarah.
Storyline 9. Sarah’s relationship with Sidney.
Storyline 10. Sarah’s relationship with Kenzo’s daughter Taki.
Storyline 11. Sarah’s relationship with her old boyfriend who she sent to prison for 18 months.
Storyline 12. Sarah’s treatment by her superiors for ratting out a fellow cop, her former boyfriend.
Storyline 13. The Yakuza warlords’ relationship with each other.
Storyline 14. Kenzo’s boss’s relationship with Yuto’s warlord boss (his wife is the warlord’s mistress).
Frighteningly enough I could add another ten storylines. That’s way too many for a series. And the series was eight long hours when it should’ve been less than four. The police work was practically non-existent and the personal relationships were borderline stupid.
2 out of 10 stars. I wouldn’t recommend this series. It was boring, stupid, and required reading subtitles for at least four hours of the eight.
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