Back to Blackthorne: Clavell’s ‘Shogun’ makes a big TV resurgence
For those who may not be able to travel internationally this year, perhaps a trip back in time would suit equally well. “Shogun,” the newest adaptation of James Clavell’s popular historical fiction novel of the same name, takes viewers back to 17th-century Japan by way of the magic of television. Don’t miss your chance to get in on the action when “Shogun” has its two-episode premiere Tuesday, Feb. 27, on FX and Hulu.
As a bestselling novel, Clavell’s “Shogun” achieved high praise from critics as well as readers, while annual sales of the book averaged approximately one million copies for more than a decade and a half (from its 1975 publication to 1990). Now, nearly half a century after the novel’s publication, “Shogun” makes yet another resurgence; not dissimilar to its growth in popularity following NBC’S three-time Emmy-winning 1980 miniseries of the same name, starring Richard Chamberlain (“The Count of Monte Christo,” 1975) in the role of Pilot Major John Blackthorne.
Taking on the role of Blackthorne in the FX series is British-american actor, musician and filmmaker Cosmo Jarvis, largely known for his roles in period pieces such as “Persuasion” (2022), “Lady Macbeth” (2016) and “Peaky Blinders.” And while much of the plot does center on Blackthorne, the entirety of the largely-japanese cast is instrumental in bringing the end of the Sengoku period to life more than 400 years after its decline.
According to FX, this new adaptation of “Shogun,” like its predecessors, “is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war.”
“When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, its English pilot, John Blackthorne (Jarvis), comes bearing secrets that could help [Lord Yoshii] Toranaga [Hiroyuki Sanada, “47 Ronin,” 2003] tip the scales of power and devastate the formidable influence of Blackthorne’s own enemies — the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants,” the official synopsis reads. “Toranaga’s and Blackthorne’s fates become inextricably tied to their translator, Toda Mariko [Anna Sawai, “Pachinko”], a mysterious Christian noblewoman and the last of a disgraced line.”
FX also noted that the series, which will span 10 episodes from its double premiere to the finale, boasts an “acclaimed Japanese cast” that is “unprecedented for an American production.”
Joining Jarvis, Sanada and Sawai among the cast are Tadanobu Asano (“Thor,” 2011) as Kashigi Yabushige, an untrustworthy ally of Toranaga’s; Hiroto Kanai (“Shomonai bokura no renai-ron”) as Kashigi Omi, head of the fishing village where Blackthorne’s ship washes up; Takehiro Hira (“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) as Ishido Kazunari, Lord Toranaga’s main rival; Tokuma Nishioka (“Godzilla vs. King Ghidora,” 1991) as Toda Hiromatsu, Toranaga’s best general and closest friend; Yuki Kura (“Followers”) as Yoshii Nagakado, Toranaga’s stubborn and all-too-eager son; Shinnosuke Abe (“13 Assassins,” 2010) as Mariko’s jealous husband, Buntaro (a.k.a. Toda Hirokatsu); Moeka Hoshi (“On the Street,” 2019) as the widow Usami Fuji, “who must find new purpose amidst her lord’s fight” (per FX); and Fumi Nikaido (“Himizu,” 2011) as Ochiba no Kata, mother of the shogunate’s rightful heir and another of Toranaga’s rivals.