SERIES REVIEW: GIRI/HAJI

Giri/ Haji is a Japanese and English TV show released by BBC on the 17th of October 2019. The Plot of the series as such the protagonist detective Kenzo Mori goes in search for his long-lost brother Yuto who is involved in the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) to London.

The plot in itself is captivating, Joe Barton the writer and creator of the show gave quite a name to the show too, the name which literally translates to duty/shame. Which is seen to be a part of every character's life.

The show received a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.9/10 on IMdB. When I first started the show, it started off as detective Kenzo shown to lead a very plain old life with his wife, old parents and daughter. That plain boring old life soon enough changed when one evening he was greeted by the yakuza that his brother was in involved with.

It was now a quest for detective Kenzo to find his brother with the uprising that he caused between the two most powerful Yakuza in Japan.

The journey of Kenzo finding for his brother is filled with certain memories he had about his brother good and bad ones. One’s where he seemed to have an unbreakable bond with his brother and one’s where he almost found himself detached.

Trying my best not to spoil the show the characters in this series were very well written, we have our Protagonist who always is mindful about his surrounding and focused on getting answers from his brother, while the Yuto on the other hand is quicker to think on his feet.

The character which particularly stole the show for me was Rodney Yamaguchi, his sense of humor mixed with dry sarcasm, sometimes blurred out the seriousness of the show. When first arriving to London, Kenzo seeks out the help of Rodney to find his brother.

Rodney's character is in itself an intricately beautiful mess, as I would describe it, he copes up his trauma by using humor as a defense mechanism as most of us do, well not certainly most of us......but definitely me for that matter! That is probably why I adore his character so much as I find him so much more relatable.

Throughout the show flashbacks pertaining to the relationship Kenzo and his brother Yuto is shown. Going to London made him not only to go and find his brother but find himself in the process, although it sounds so cheesy, I know

But the fact that Kenzo realized a lot of things about himself and the relationships he thought he had a grip over was in fact not true......he is seen to have a struggling relationship with his daughter as he fails to convey most of the things that happen in his life.

Even though the series contained only 8 episodes which were each 57 minutes long, the details and plot twists kept me wanting to watching this on an entire binge spree. How each character's story was described and what connection they had not with each other but through their stories.

A line that particularly that comes from another character from the show Sarah Weitzmann (p.s.: Not a character that I'm particularly fond of to be honest) she says that even a small decision in your life can lead to consecutively 100 and 10,000’s changes in your life. Just a small thing in your life could lead to so many outcomes and so many possibilities and if you think about it carefully it does.

I definitely recommend this series to everyone who is up for plot twist, betrayals and... suspense suspense suspense had to exaggerate that last part since that was literally the entire mythos of the series. But in all genuintiy, this series was compelling, action packed and quite the show to keep you on the edge of your seats.