Japanese for Duty /Shame; and is a BBC production available on Netflix in the US. It is set in London and Tokyo; much of the dialogue is Japanese but with effective subtitles; and it grabs your attention for eight episodes. The acting is superb with not one actor I have ever heard of. I can't do better than lift the plot summary direct from Wikipedia . . .
Kenzo Mori (Takehiro Hira), a Tokyo detective, travels to London in search of his brother, Yuto (Yōsuke Kubozuka), who was previously assumed to be dead. Yuto has been accused of murdering the nephew of a Yakuza member, which threatens to start a gang war in Tokyo. As Kenzo attempts to navigate the unfamiliar territory of London to uncover whether his brother is alive and guilty, he becomes acquainted with DC Sarah Weitzmann (Kelly Macdonald) of the Metropolitan Police and Rodney Yamaguchi (Will Sharpe), a young half-Japanese, half-British sex worker. While searching for Yuto in London, Kenzo must also support his family back home in Tokyo. Kenzo's investigation brings him into contact with dangerous elements of London's criminal underworld.
. . . but that is maybe 1/10 of the plot. I could expand it but that would involve spoilers.
Watch the first episode. If you hate it - well, you've wasted 50 minutes of your life and feel free to castigate me. But I think you'll stay for the rest of it.
Kelly Macdonald is quite a brilliant actor - I highly recommend the most recent season of Line of Duty in which she features, or the limited series The Victim which released same year as Girl/Haji (which is on my watchlist).
Her breakout role was in Trainspotting - a brilliant film, but it might not be up your alley. She’s been in a bunch of other good stuff too - Boardwalk Empire, for instance.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
Now you mention it, Kelly Macdonald did give me a 'where have I seen you before?' moment. Trainspotting was great, and she was in Gosford Park as well. But I could not have told you her name.
I loved Giri/Haji, binge watched it. Different enough to be worth watching.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
