Streaming on Disney Plus, SHOGUN is a modern adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel. I loved this new take, though the last act has its frustrations.
In this story, Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea with a dying crew. They are searching for a secret nation called Japan, known at the time only to the Portuguese. After they are overtaken by a local Japanese lord, Blackthorne finds himself navigating not the sea but cultures, politics, and civil war in feudal Japan.
This is an amazing story lavishly told with stunning locations, a powerful cast, and a loving attention to detail from customs to costumes. Apparently, even the Japanese spoken in the series is not modern Japanese but its medieval predecessor.
When it shows a clash of cultures, it’s engaging, embodied in Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis playing the role with a dash of Tom Hardy) and Mariko, the woman engaged as interpreter on his behalf (Anna Sawai). He believes in freedom and making your own destiny by conquering the external world. She comes from a culture where people find meaning in service within a hierarchy with strict rules, and that a kind of freedom is achievable by conquering your own desires in service to a higher power. Blackthorne plays a pivotal role in the story but is hardly a white savior, one of many characters shaping events. While sometimes he takes direct action and affects the plot, often he is a pawn in political machinations and to an extent simply amusing to the Japanese.
As a romance, the story is also well done. Blackthorne and Mariko have very real chemistry, you can see how they appeal to each other not just sexually but in spirit, and their romance is hard earned. You root for them.
As a story of civil war, this is a lot of the story but the source of a little frustration. The Taiko is dead, and his son is not old enough to rule the country. In his stead, a council of regents made up of great lords rules. The lords gang up on one of the most powerful, Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada chewing pretty much every scene he’s in to bits), and seek to vote to eject him from the council and then execute him. Much of the show is Toranaga, who has a reputation for winning through deception, staging a long con against the council to weaken them, as he can’t take them on in direct battle. If he wins, he will become Shogun–a military dictator. Along the way, there is setback after setback, and it all seems hopeless, though the old fox again has a plan. The climax isn’t what we expect, however, but something different, and while it works for the story, it’s not quite cathartic, and as a result, as we see how it’s all going to tie up, it wasn’t entirely satisfying for me. That’s not to say it’s all talking, though there is quite a bit of that. Some of the combat scenes are pure art. But overall, the ending wasn’t as decisive or powerful as I would have liked.
Despite that, overall I found SHOGUN respectful to its source material and the culture it depicts, gorgeously immersive, and compelling to watch. Recommended.
