"Law & Order" Gaijin (TV Episode 2004) Poster

(TV Series)

(2004)

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9/10
You ever wonder how many people see the front page story and miss the follow-up correction?
Mrpalli778 December 2017
An operator in her first day of work at 911 received the first call: a foreigner stated he and his wife had been shot and they were both wounded. The wife died shortly after reaching the hospital; they were Japanese national on holiday to see Ground Zero. The husband (Will Yun Lee), a businessman who owned a nightclub in Tokyo, was not life- threatening and he recognized the killer as a black man wearing a stocking cap who left the scene with a red van. A delivery service in the neighborhood used red van to make deliveries but all the laborers had their own alibi. Anyway, one delivery man noticed a Lexus leaving the crime scene at the time of the murder. It was driven by a Jacuza member who confessed right away the murder: he was hired by the husband to collect insurance money (he had a lot of gambling debts). Racial issues emerged at trial and some jurors were replaced.

An episode in which we see how sometimes Justice System could take advantage of press to reach the target. A dispute against Japanese consulate emerged, but thanks to reporters there were no need of extradition.
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7/10
Things get racially charged here
AlsExGal27 March 2017
Van Buren has reservations about Branch's tactics of inventing a tale of a suspect in custody to lure a Ginza nightclub owner back to New York after the Japanese government is unwilling to extradite him to face charges of conspiracy and murder in the death of his wife on a New York City vacation.

During jury selection, the defense attorney excludes every black person. This is because the defendant initially blamed an unidentified black man for his wife's murder. McCoy challenges the one Asian juror, but for reasons unrelated to race. At trial, things go pretty well, but it's hard to tell which way the jury is leaning.

Watch and find out.
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7/10
Foreigner
TheLittleSongbird8 July 2022
"Gaijin" sounded like the sort of story that 'Law and Order' was known to excel well in. It does sound ordinary on first glance, but had real potential to be an episode that had tension and emotion if done right. 'Law and Order' did do well often at making something complex out of what sounds basic when getting the basic jist of the synopsis. Other episodes in Season 14 took on more challenging subjects with rather varied success, but that was in no way an issue.

On first watch, this was a good episode if not great. My feelings on rewatch are still the same in that it is worth watching but not essential 'Law and Order'. Not the worst of the season ("Blaze", which was still well above average), but it's no "Bodies", "Identity", "Darwinian" and "Nowhere Man" which were all extremely powerful episodes. A lot is done right here in "Gaijin", there are just things here at the same time that are a little lacking or things that other episodes do better.

Not everything works. It does start off on the ordinary and familiar side, with familiar plot tropes, though it still intrigued and Briscoe and Green are a great team. The conclusion is somewhat over-crowded and rushed.

Elisabeth Rohm plays a dull character like Southerlyn with a very limited range while also looking uncomfortable.

However, as said above a lot is done right. The rest of the acting is very good, in the policing and legal scenes. The supporting cast do very well and the characters aren't as stereotyped or as unsubtle as feared. The more intricate the plot becomes, the more involving it gets as well without getting over-complicated. It is not a simple story, with a good number of twists and turns, but it wasn't hard to follow at the same time. It is also one of those episodes that doesn't hold back on its subject without going over the top.

Moreover, it doesn't look drab or gaudy, and the editing is far from slapdash. The music avoids getting too melodramatic in the more dramatic moments while not being too low key, it has always been a good move that it is used relatively sparingly. The direction especially shines in the character interaction in the second half. The script is beautifully balanced, there is a lot of talk but taut enough to avoid it from waffling.

In conclusion, not great but worth watching. 7/10.
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6/10
Effrontery
bkoganbing16 September 2020
In one of the most brazen cases of arrogant effrontery ever seen on any Law And Order franchise show, Japanese tourist Victor Hun Lee is shot and wounded and his wife killed by what Jerry Orbach calls your generic black mugger.

But the evidence points to the fact that Lee paid a Yakuza assassin James Hiroyuki Liao to murder the wife and wound him to throw off suspicion. Lee goes to the media, Japanese and American, talking about the crime and violence in the USA.

Getting an unbiased jury in this racially charged case is a big task for both Sam Waterston and defense attorney Spencer Garrett.

One thing for sure Will Hun Lee is guilty of chutzpah in the first degree.j
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