Giri/Haji

Giri/Haji, BBC Two’s eight-part series, was the best TV I watched in 2019, and that included The Handmaid's Tale and Killing Eve (I had yet to see The Terror: Infamy and Chernobyl). For me, Giri/Haji stood out for its fusion of genres and its mix of languages, cultures and character types.

While much TV aimed at Western audiences centers on the hard-boiled cop, this series focuses on a Japanese detective with a yakuza brother who’s fled to London. The gay characters, now something of a staple in TV and film, are a witty cokehead and a teenage Japanese girl. The white woman falls for the Asian man. The chic black woman is the assassin. And so on. Diversify, diversify. We’ve seen it all before so why not switch things up?

Parts are in Japanese, others in English. Some of it is shot in Tokyo and the countryside in Japan, and some in and around London. The soundtrack, varied and eclectic, ranges from jazz and classical to J-pop and techno.

The plot also keeps you guessing. Someone you expect to make it to the end is suddenly shot. Another is forced to atone by cutting off a finger just when it seems he might escape that fate.

The visual style is just as varied. Camera angles and shots are experimental, and the lighting creates subtle shifts in mood. The dialogue is sharp and the acting is solid. There are sequences in black and white, touches of animation, and even a dance scene, surprisingly enough. The series is also self-aware in how it plays with conventions and stereotypes, which makes it more entertaining, funnier, more dramatic, and more suspenseful.

Each episode runs about an hour, and with its fairly dense narrative, it’s not especially suited to binge-watching. All in all, it feels fresh, and perhaps a sign of what’s to come in the years ahead.