New BBC Crime Mystery 'Giri/Haji' Has Already Got Fans Gripped

BBC's latest crime drama has got fans hooked already - well what do you expect for a project by the makers of Chernobyl?

All eight episodes of Giri/Haji landed on iPlayer this week (Thursday 17th) and already fans are steaming through the entire series.

The drama - translating to Duty/ Shame in English - is described as a "soulful thriller" following the lives of two brothers, Kenzo (Takehiro Hira) and Yuto (Yosuke Kubozuka), who are drove apart by a killing.

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When it was first announced in September, BBC said: "Giri/Haji (Duty/Shame) is a soulful thriller that explores the butterfly effect of one murder across London and Tokyo, which sees Kenzo and Yuto, once devoted and now estranged brothers, driven to opposite sides of the world by the spiralling consequences of one violent split-second decision at the heart of the story."

The BBC added: "Traversing the narrative's multiple time frames and locations, the visually and narratively rich bi-lingual drama fuses genre in sophisticated and inventive ways. The bi-lingual drama plays out in both Japanese and English as the action moves freely from Tokyo to London."

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Already fans are praising the international drama, calling it "stylish" and "gripping".

One fan tweeted that Giri/Haji "felt important" adding it "Felt like true art in a year that has felt full of remakes, reboots and the flogging of dead franchises."

"Hooked on #GiriHaji not even a minute into the first episode," said another fans, adding it was "so much better than #DublinMurders."

"#GiriHaji programmes like this make the licence fee worth paying. absolutely loved it. very stylish & gripping. the best thing I've seen this year. more like this please [sic]" penned another.

Sounds like it's worth a watch.

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Giri/Haji also stars Kelly MacDonald (Nanny McPhee, Black Mirror) as Sarah, Will Sharpe (The Dark Universe, Babylon) as Rodney, Justin Long (New Girl, Skylander Academy) as Vickers, Charlie Creed-Miles (Peaky Blinders, Silent Witness) as Abbott.

Masahiro Motoki, Tony Pitts, Tony Way, Sophia Brown, and Hannah Isherwood make up the cast, while Joe Barton is responsible for the screenplay.

Filming began in London in August 2018 and continued in Hastings, East Sussex in March 2019, with filming then heading to Tokyo.

Giri/Haji landed on iPlayer yesterday, but will stream on Netflix for international audiences.

Topics: TV and Film, BBC, TV Entertainment

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard