Duty/Shame
Oct. 25th, 2019 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessGiri/Haji episode 2
Continues to be watchable enough. Not so many stylish flourishes, although I loved the ‘previously’ bit – well, the painted-over still images, the voice over was only so-so, but did its job. We then dived into what Yuto was up to (or part of it) explaining how Donna, Gangster!Abbot’s right hand woman, had her gun sighted on Kenzo and how the much publicised Justin Long fitted into all this (as an anti-Japanese American whose boring criminal ways of making money got usurped by Yuto’s cool yakuza influence).
We didn’t need the moment where Kenzo thought Rodney was his brother – well, I had figured that Rodney was playing that role for him all on my own. Rodney is still entertaining, even when battered. The mime based on the picture! Handily, through Kenzo, he met Sarah who had just enough simmering rage at not being able to use her detective skills and talents etc etc to direct at Michael effectively. Her best line was commenting on Kenzo’s edited recap of how he came to know Rodney.
So, Kenzo got threatened but went on investigating into Abbott, mainly. I really liked the way we kept seeing the time differences between the UK and Japan through his phone calls. For most of the episode, Yuto was an absent ‘ghost’. I still feel sorry for Kenzo’s wife, Rei, with all the little family alliances – like Kenzo and Taki. The scene where the young yakuza threatened Taki, being all sassy policeman’s daughter, but still a schoolgirl (if expelled) had a charge to is, as she probably hadn’t thought she’d meet real danger when she threw the word ‘dangerous’ at her mum. There were more fuel on the flames of the yakuza war in Tokyo, with the complicating police loyalties (er, why did the chief not confront his much younger wife other than sexism?)
We ended with Kenzo finally reuniting with Yuto, whose relationship/alliance with Donna needs more explanation. Well, as does many things. She kept reminding me of Alexandra Burke because of her voice.
Continues to be watchable enough. Not so many stylish flourishes, although I loved the ‘previously’ bit – well, the painted-over still images, the voice over was only so-so, but did its job. We then dived into what Yuto was up to (or part of it) explaining how Donna, Gangster!Abbot’s right hand woman, had her gun sighted on Kenzo and how the much publicised Justin Long fitted into all this (as an anti-Japanese American whose boring criminal ways of making money got usurped by Yuto’s cool yakuza influence).
We didn’t need the moment where Kenzo thought Rodney was his brother – well, I had figured that Rodney was playing that role for him all on my own. Rodney is still entertaining, even when battered. The mime based on the picture! Handily, through Kenzo, he met Sarah who had just enough simmering rage at not being able to use her detective skills and talents etc etc to direct at Michael effectively. Her best line was commenting on Kenzo’s edited recap of how he came to know Rodney.
So, Kenzo got threatened but went on investigating into Abbott, mainly. I really liked the way we kept seeing the time differences between the UK and Japan through his phone calls. For most of the episode, Yuto was an absent ‘ghost’. I still feel sorry for Kenzo’s wife, Rei, with all the little family alliances – like Kenzo and Taki. The scene where the young yakuza threatened Taki, being all sassy policeman’s daughter, but still a schoolgirl (if expelled) had a charge to is, as she probably hadn’t thought she’d meet real danger when she threw the word ‘dangerous’ at her mum. There were more fuel on the flames of the yakuza war in Tokyo, with the complicating police loyalties (er, why did the chief not confront his much younger wife other than sexism?)
We ended with Kenzo finally reuniting with Yuto, whose relationship/alliance with Donna needs more explanation. Well, as does many things. She kept reminding me of Alexandra Burke because of her voice.
