Shōgun James Clavell’s love letter to Japan finally gets the adaptation it deserves
Potential Portuguese outrage aside, this offers a nice balance of politics and action, top-notch production design and a fabulous cast,
Sandwiched between 1977’s Roots and 1983’s The Thorn Birds, Shōgun was one of the most highly-anticipated television literary adaptations and mini-series of its time.
In truth, the latter term was something of a misnomer. Hogan’s Heroes and Dr Quinn Medicine Woman director Jerry London’s five-part adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 doorstop of a book (the first edition was a whopping 1152 pages) delivered 10 hours of appointment viewing, as Richard Chamberlain’s English navigator John Blackthorne became both a player and a pawn in the complex political games in Japan circa 1600.
But while the Australian-born, British writer’s “love letter to Japan” (an irony given the treatment he received at the hands of some of that country’s citizens as a prisoner of war in Singapore during World War II) had an apparently demonstrable impact on Westerners’ knowledge of – and interest in – Japanese history and culture, viewers were more interested in the – then – surprisingly frank depictions of sex and violence on broadcast TV.
Naturally, they tuned in in droves, the series took home three Emmys and a two-hour cinematic cut was created and released in Europe that upped the nudity and crude language – and served to highlight the somewhat dodgy depictions of Nippon history.
Now, almost 4½ decades later, Hollywood has returned to drink once again from Clavell’s inkwell, albeit with a far more atmospheric and allegedly accurate take on early 17th-century life in the land of the rising sun.
This Shōgun still clocks in at about 600 minutes, although this time it’s divided into 10 parts – the first two of which drop on Disney+ tonight.
As the (sadly this time Orson Wellesnarration-free) opening titles inform us, the Portuguese Catholics have richly profited from trade in Japan for decades, while also keeping the islands’ whereabouts hidden from their sworn enemies – the European protestants.
However, that hasn’t stopped ships like the Dutch vessel Erasmus from vigorously searching.
And now, despite “enduring pestilence and knowing starvation”, as well as a touch of scurvy, the remaining 12 crew members believe they have found their quarry.
Unfortunately, the welcome for English pilot John Blackthorne (Lady Macbeth’s Cosmo Jarvis) and the rest of “the shit-smelling, but generally ablebodied Protestant scoundrels” is lessthan-cordial. Oil is being boiled – and it’s not for a broth to share.
It doesn’t help that they’ve arrived at a time of great tension throughout the land. It’s a year since the Taikō died, leaving behind an heir too young to rule.
His will decreed that five warrior lords would “peacefully share power”, until the boy became of age, but since then, they’ve been trapped in a bitter struggle, the actions of Lord Toranaga (The Last Samurai’s Hiroyuki Sanada) in allegedly consenting to six marriages and doubling the size of his fief of particular concern to the other quartet.
While he claims he “will never be the first to break peace”, news that the heir’s mother, Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido), has been taken to his castle – without warning or request – sees Toranaga called to the Council of Regents.
With his protest that she’s there to help her sister – his daughter-in-law – give birth falling on deaf ears, he’s given just seven days to release her, or they will decide his fate.
Seemingly cornered by “bureaucrats who want him dead” – and knowing there’s no way he can successfully mount a war against their combined forces – a solution to his predicament appears unlikely, until he hears of the arrival of a “barbarian ship” at Anjin.
Although he’s cautioned against anything other than terminating the lives of those on board, both by his own men and his Portuguese “spiritual advisers”, Toranaga insists that the sole Englishman be both saved – and bathed.
The first things that strike you about husband-and-wife screenwriters’ Justin Marks (Top Gun: Maverick, Counterpart) and Rachel Kondo’s slick adaptation are the impressive costuming and production design. Even though it’s deliberately grittily and gloomily shot (very much setting it apart from the 1980 version), the attention-to-detail is notable and the outfits suitably sumptuous.
The writing duo also find a nice balance between the political machinations and the outdoor action, delivering some terrific set pieces, while also bringing the drama and a little of black humour, especially initially from Lost’s Néstor Carbonell as Vasco Rodrigues, the only man likely to prevent Blackthorne from an untimely early death (while also teasing him about it at the same time).
Unfortunately, though, his presence also focuses the viewer’s attention on the one weakpoint – and disappointment – of this series, its depiction of the Portuguese. Why, when all the Japanese characters speak in their native tongues, are those representing Philip the Pious, acknowledged by others as talking in Portuguese, speaking – to our ears – in English?
For New Zealand viewers, as well as Taranaki favourite Sanada, there’s also a key role for Kiwi-born Anna Sawai (Pachinko, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters).
All eyes, though, are likely to be on Jarvis, who does not have the cheekbones of one particular Richard, but, by God, he has the booming baritone of another. He might have been born in New Jersey, but the British actor sure sounds like a certain Welsh star of Cleopatra and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? here.
Shōgun begins streaming on Disney+ on the evening of February 27.
It still clocks in at about 600 minutes, although this time it’s divided into 10 parts – the first two of which drop on Disney+ tonight.