Kenzo Mori (Takehiro Hira), a Tokyo detective, travels to London in search of his brother, Yuto (Yōsuke Kubozuka), who was previously assumed to be dead. Yuto has been accused of murdering the nephew of a Yakuza member, which threatens to start a gang war in Tokyo. As Kenzo attempts to navigate the unfamiliar territory of London to uncover whether his brother is alive and guilty, he becomes acquainted with DC Sarah Weitzmann (Kelly Macdonald) of the Metropolitan Police and Rodney Yamaguchi (Will Sharpe), a young half-Japanese, half-British sex worker. While searching for Yuto in London, Kenzo must also support his family back home in Tokyo. Kenzo's investigation brings him into contact with dangerous elements of London's criminal underworld.[3]
Cast and characters
Takehiro Hira as Kenzo Mori (Japanese: 森健三, Mori Kenzō), a Tokyo police detective who travels to London to search for his missing brother[1]
Filming began in London around August 2018,[1][7] and continued in Hastings in March 2019.[8] Filming also took place in Tokyo.[4]
Series lead Takehiro Hira commented on the challenging nature of shooting the bilingual script: "We did have some hard times with the translation... Little nuances on the text didn’t match, or didn’t translate well. So we went back and forth with Joe and the director. It was a challenge, but one we enjoyed."[9]
Tokyo police detective Kenzo Mori and his partner Toshio investigate a gang war between Yakuza bosses Fukuhara and Shin Endo. That night, Kenzo is visited at his home by Fukuhara, who tells him that Endo's nephew Saburo was killed in London with Fukuhara's ancestral sword. Fukuhara believes the killer to be Kenzo's brother Yuto, who was working for Fukuhara before he disappeared. He sends Kenzo to London to find his brother and thereby clear Fukuhara's name to avoid a gang war; the Tokyo police set up a cover for Kenzo as an exchange student at a police academy course taught by DC Sarah Weitzmann. Looking for leads, Kenzo enlists Rodney Yamaguchi, a sex worker he met earlier, to grant him entry to the Momo Lounge, a mafia-owned bar. The patrons tell him a story of a disgraced Yakuza assassin (shown to be Yuto) who saved a London gangster from being killed at the Lounge. Kenzo later learns that his investigation is being stalled on behalf of a "Mr. Abbot". In flashbacks, Yuto begs Kenzo's help after shooting one of Endo's men during an altercation over sports betting; Kenzo finds the man injured but alive, then kills him and stages the crime scene to clear Yuto of suspicion.
2
Episode 2
Julian Farino
Joe Barton
24 October 2019 (2019-10-24)
A flashback shows how Yuto began working for Connor Abbot, a small-time London gangster, after saving his life at the Momo Lounge. Abbot, hoping to gain status within the Yakuza, had Yuto kill Saburo. In the present, Abbot's assassin Donna Clark warns Kenzo to drop his investigation. Sarah shows an unidentified mugshot of Yuto to Kenzo, who feigns ignorance. Kenzo breaks into Saburo's safe and finds photos of Fukuhara in an affair with the wife of Tokyo Chief Inspector Hayashi. In retaliation, Hayashi arrests all of Fukuhara's lieutenants, leaving Fukuhara without protection and threatening the fragile peace between the Yakuza gangs. Kenzo finds Rodney badly beaten by his pimp and lets him stay at his apartment; Sarah later meets Rodney herself and warns his pimp not to hurt him again. Kenzo meets Abbot's former business partner Ellis Vickers and asks his help in finding Yuto, and later admits to Sarah that he is in London to find his brother. Abbot pressures Donna to kill Kenzo, but Donna warns against killing a policeman, and instead brings Yuto to meet Kenzo face-to-face.
3
Episode 3
Julian Farino
Joe Barton
31 October 2019 (2019-10-31)
Yuto warns Kenzo to stay away for his own safety, before having Donna drop him back home. Kenzo's troubled daughter Taki runs away from home and flies to London to stay with him. She soon befriends Rodney and accompanies him to meet the parents of his ex-boyfriend, who killed himself after Rodney broke up with him. Sarah invites Kenzo, Rodney and Taki to her home for a Yom Kippur celebration over dinner, where they share their regrets. Kenzo and Vickers go to meet Abbot, but the meeting turns sour when Vickers demands back the money he invested into Abbot's operations, threatening to send the Albanian mafia after him. Growing impatient, Abbot threatens to kill Donna unless she gets rid of Kenzo; Donna, seeking freedom from Abbot, tips off Vickers that Abbot will be attending a meeting at a Soho restaurant that night with little protection, giving Vickers and the Albanians the opportunity to assassinate him. Vickers invites Kenzo to come along, but Kenzo calls Yuto to warn him, leading Yuto in turn to warn Donna, unaware of her betrayal. All parties converge at the restaurant, and a shootout ensues.
4
Episode 4
Julian Farino
Joe Barton
7 November 2019 (2019-11-07)
Separate flashbacks reveal Yuto and Sarah's backgrounds. Sarah discovers her boyfriend Ian, a fellow policeman, is cheating on her, and retaliates by reporting him for planting evidence to obtain an arrest, leading to Ian's incarceration and turning Sarah into a pariah at the police department. Yuto is shown to have been recruited by Fukuhara as a reward for supposedly killing Endo's men in the sports-betting incident. As he climbs the ranks of the Yakuza, Yuto falls in love with Fukuhara's daughter Eiko, who soon reveals that she is pregnant. Yuto asks Fukuhara's permission to marry Eiko, but Fukuhara, who wishes his daughter never to marry a gangster after his own wife was killed during an attempt on his life, orders Yuto killed. Yuto escapes his execution, taking Fukuhara's sword with him, and fakes his death by sending his getaway car into the sea. In the present, Toshio defends an unprotected Fukuhara from assassins sent after him, while in London, both Abbot's men and the Albanians suffer heavy casualties during the restaurant shootout. One of the Albanians is about to kill an injured Yuto, but Kenzo kills the man first.
5
Episode 5
Ben Chessell
Joe Barton
14 November 2019 (2019-11-14)
Taki and Rodney find an injured Yuto and take him to Sarah's apartment, where Kenzo arrives and removes the shrapnel from his chest. Vickers takes an injured Donna back to his apartment, where Donna kills him, only to be herself shot dead by Vickers' wife after she arrives home to find her husband dead. Kenzo and Sarah grow closer, while Kenzo's wife Rei calls him from Tokyo to tell him his father Hotaka has died from illness. When Yuto wakes, Kenzo berates him for the situation he has caused and says he plans to arrest him, but Yuto affirms that this will merely end with him being summarily executed by the Yakuza as a peace offering. Yuto reveals that Shin Endo allowed him to kill Saburo and pin the murder on Fukuhara, which Yuto intended as revenge for Fukuhara keeping him from raising his son with Eiko. Sarah's superior, DCI Steve Angling, sends Hayashi a photo of Kenzo chasing down Yuto during the Soho shootout. Yuto calls Rei and asks her help in rescuing his son.
6
Episode 6
Ben Chessell
Joe Barton
21 November 2019 (2019-11-21)
Kenzo, Yuto, Taki, Rodney and Sarah travel to a beach and perform a memorial for Hotaka. Kenzo decides not to arrest Yuto, feeling it is not his place to decide his brother's fate. Kenzo and Sarah admit their feelings for one another, while Taki begins a relationship with Rodney's friend Annie. Rodney, struggling with guilt over his ex-boyfriend's suicide, goes on a nightlong cocaine bender, and later asks Sarah to help him break his addiction, starting by joining a support group. Posing as cleaners, Rei and her mother-in-law Natsuko break Eiko and baby Sora out of the safehouse where they are being kept, planning to take shelter at a house in the countryside. Endo cuts ties with Abbot. Despite having lost control of the streets, a recovering Fukuhara resolves to capture Yuto out of honor, and sends his men into London to find him. Ian shows Sarah photos of Yuto in her apartment and tells her he plans to report her for harboring a wanted criminal.
7
Episode 7
Ben Chessell
Joe Barton
28 November 2019 (2019-11-28)
Kenzo and Yuto go searching for Ian. Toshio calls Kenzo to inform him that he is in London with Fukuhara's men. Sarah meets with Ian herself; Rodney sends Taki to spy on their meeting, but Taki becomes upset and leaves when she hears them discuss whether Sarah loves Kenzo, and is therefore not present when Ian reconciles with Sarah and decides not to report her. An unassuming Rodney then plants drugs on Ian and calls the police on him; Ian is struck by a squad car while resisting arrest and dies from his injuries. Yuto calls Eiko, who tells him to come home. Yuto is then recognized on the street by Angling, whom he kidnaps and takes to a parking garage; Kenzo arrives, and the two brothers argue about their lives until Yuto decides he will return to Japan, while Kenzo lets Angling live. On the road, Natsuko tells Rei that she always believed she and Kenzo to be mismatched; Rei, already feeling distant from Kenzo, calls him to tell him she no longer wants to be married to him. Kenzo then visits Sarah, and the two have sex. Fukuhara's men kill one of Annie's friends at her workplace and force her to lure Taki there via text.
8
Episode 8
Julian Farino
Joe Barton
5 December 2019 (2019-12-05)
Eiko's guards track her group down to Natsuko's family farmhouse, only to be shot dead by Roy, a British exchange officer in Tokyo as Abbot's informant. Roy promises to drive the group to safety, but a suspicious Eiko calls the police, leading to a struggle that causes the car to crash. No one is harmed, and the police rescue Eiko's group. In London, Fukuhara's men kidnap Taki to force Yuto into a meeting. Yuto gives the meeting's location to Kenzo, whom Abbot forces to take him along. Sarah follows them, and the three confront Fukuhara's men on the rooftop. Yuto arrives and a standoff ensues, but Taki threatens to jump off the rooftop to her death, feeling abandoned by her father. She nearly slips and falls, but Kenzo and Yuto save her. Meanwhile, Endo calls a Yakuza meeting to formally settle his conflict with Fukuhara, only to kill Fukuhara himself; the Yakuza's adjudicators then kill Endo's men and take him away, declaring the gang war over. Hayashi relays the news to Fukuhara's men in London; when they refuse to stand down, Yuto and Abbot kill them. Yuto goes on the run once again, while Kenzo asks Sarah to turn him in to the British police, expressing his wish for Yuto to finally find peace. Yuto reunites with Eiko and Sora in Paris.
Critical reception
Giri/Haji received critical acclaim. 100% of 22 critic reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes are positive for the series, earning an average rating of 9.06/10. The consensus on the website reads, "Smart, suspenseful, and superbly shot, Giri/Haji is a near-perfect crime thriller with a surprisingly sharp sense of humor."[10]
Writing for the Radio Times, Patrick Cremona described Giri/Haji as a "breath of fresh air" and a "masterful and sprawling thriller", awarding the series five stars out of five.[11]The Times critic Carol Migley awarded the opening episode four stars out of five,[12] while The Daily Telegraph reviewer Michael Hogan gave it five stars out of five, describing it as "impressionistic, playful and unashamedly arty", as well as "bold, bewitching and slightly bonkers".[13]The New Yorker included the series in an article about the best programmes available on streaming services, with reviewer Doreen St. Félix writing: "violently stylish, and also plain violent, Giri/Haji is a filial drama crossed with a sprawling, sexy police thriller".[14]The Guardian's Lucy Mangan was more critical, awarding the series three out of five stars based on a partial viewing. Mangan complimented the "unfetishised" portrayal of Japan, but described the series as "a bore" and criticised the more familiar genre tropes.[15] David Cirone of J-Generation criticized the series as going "heavy on theme, light on story", and NPR's Fresh Air critic John Powers noted that the show's "excesses can get a bit silly".[16][17]
