Giri/Haji

This is was really something. And there's really no good way to get around saying that something happens in the last episode (of eight) that will be divisive (perhaps most weirdly, it's not a plot issue, rather a presentation one) so, while I won't discuss it explicitly here, be aware. The story follows a Japanese detective tasked with tracking his brother, previously thought to be dead, to London in order to avert an impending Yakuza power struggle in Tokyo. Once in England, as his personal life collapses around him (over the telephone), the detective is drawn variously into the orbits of a variety of characters, including Kelly McDonald's cop (who has been relegated to teaching for, um, reasons), Will Sharpe's drug-addicted male prostitute, and an assortment of British and Albanian gangsters (along with Justin Long). It's all very convoluted (but not in a bad way, just a 'too much to write out' kind of way) and almost every single one of the large cast of characters is given a backstory (with many of getting whole flashback sequences). But there are a couple of things that, I think really set this apart. First of all is the presentation; it looks beautiful. Attention is paid to lighting, framing, and composition. At times it looks like it was adapted from a graphic novel (but I don't think it was), but never (well, it does once) slavishly copying one, rather utilizing the form cinematically. Almost all of the exterior photography is gorgeous. Second, the performances are exceptional; Takehiro Hira's detective & Yōsuke Kubozuka, as his brother, both do more not saying things than most people can do verbally, Aoi Okuyama, as Hira's daughter, gives a what could have been a stock 'troubled teen' character an extraordinary amount of nuance teen, Sharpe's rent-boy tightrope walks a insanely narrow line between being ridiculous and beautiful, Sophia Brown wrings an astonishing amount of pathos out of her enforcer character, and McDonald, well, she's always good, but her nervous compressed energy has perhaps never been better deployed. They are all good, like incredibly good. There are perhaps a couple of quibbles--the needle drops are both a little one the nose & repetitive and some of the dialogue is just the wrong side of stereotype--but there's so much great stuff here that it'd be as shame to downgrade it much for those. Which brings me back to the last episode. I don't know if there was an intention to make a second season (a couple of things seem rather more rushed than I'd've expected in such a deliberately paced show as this) and I'm genuinely uncertain about the 'scene' (it's, if nothing, fascinating that they even tried it, regardless of whether you think it works or not) and how it fits into the whole but, none-the-less, this is worth watching for the performances and style (and for what it is worth, I really liked the recaps before each episode, as well, so don't skip them).