James Clavell's Shogun

[Noriko Takaya]

I just finished watching it this afternoon. This epic 9 hour miniseries from 1980 just hit the shelves a month or so ago on DVD. I vaguely remember watching it as a kid, and I remember the book even less although I read it many years later in 1986 while overseas. I was glad to see that it had finally been released in an unedited form on DVD as it had never been done on VHS, save for the exception of a very hard to find and very expensive boxed set.

I found myself rather enjoying this series, even though there were some pretty cheesy parts and that 1/4 of the epic was in Japanese with no subtitles. You would have figured that with the subtitles option on DVD's the producers could have included translations, but I guess they wanted you to feel like the main character was feeling. Lost in a land where no one spoke your language. And the fact that Lady Mariko had to constantly tell Blackthorne why so and so died or committed suicide after she had told him 50 other times was kind of annoying.

What are your opinions on this series? Are there any other fans of this show? What did they get right, and what did they get wrong? (Other than Richard Chamberlain, of course! )

By the way, Yoko Shimada, who plays Lady Mariko was also in that laughable movie The Hunted with Christopher Lambert. She played that samurai dude's wife who got stuck with an arrow toward the end of the movie. She's still looking pretty good.

[gnollman]

Excellent show... bought it myself... still haven't watched the extras disc, though....

I've got no major complaints, except for the samurai uniforms... no such thing existed...

Well, that, and the obvious production errors (swords under armpits and the like)... but I'm willing to overlook these seeing as when it was produced...

[yellowlightman]

I remember watching this miniseries years ago, but I can't remember much about the actual series.

For those thinking about reading the book, read Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's waaaaay better, and doesn't change around the names of actual people like Shogun did. Not to mention that Miyamoto Musashi was an actual person (although the stories in the book are largely fictional or high romanticized).

[Hurricane29]

I thought the series was great the first time I saw it, this summer. I didn't know it was out on DVD, got to pick it up.

[Mechafan]

Yup I saw this a long time ago and I liked it.

[gnollman]

I remember watching this miniseries years ago, but I can't remember much about the actual series.

For those thinking about reading the book, read Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's waaaaay better, and doesn't change around the names of actual people like Shogun did. Not to mention that Miyamoto Musashi was an actual person (although the stories in the book are largely fictional or high romanticized).

Another excellent book... I agree with yellowlightman, this book is most certainly worth reading....

[Roy Focker]

I saw it twice in the last 5 years it's pretty good as TV mini series go. Part of the reason why the lead seems so stupid and has to be told stuff again and again is because it's a mini series and new viewers could come in at different parts. If you have been watching from the start you get sick of it.

[ewilen]

Saw it when it was first on TV. (I was about 14 at the time, so I trust my recollected judgment.) Probably my favorite miniseries, or at least one of my top three. (Roots and Masada being the other candidates.) Basically, although it may be guilty of various historical inaccuracies, I don't think they did anything wrong dramatically/filmically; Chamberlain was fine by me. EXCEPT, I disagree with the decision to leave out translations of dialogue which is occurring out of earshot of Blackthorne/Anjinsan. If the idea was to show his experience, then they might as well leave those scenes out entirely. If the scenes were worth showing even though he wasn't present, they were worth subtitling.

(Somehow I remember that they originally had no explanatory text at all for those scenes, but at some point--maybe in repeat showings--they at least provided a general gloss of what was going on.)

Edited December 26, 2003 by ewilen

[gnollman]

Anything that didn't get translated generally gets explained later on. I can't really think of any points where the Japanese is actually important enough wo need to understand where they don't explain it later....

My friends are always bothering me about that...

[GDomino]

Actually read the book during a typhoon when I first got stuck in Okinawa for a tour... my mom gave me the book to read to get acquainted with the culture.... It was really interesting since at the time I could relate with Blackthorne's dilemma; being stuck in an unknown land and not knowing a lick of the language. I saw the mini a few months ago when they had a marathon on some cable channel. And as in most cases, I rather enjoyed the book way more than the film version... could be because the girls looked way hotter in my imagination.

[Gaijin]

I remember it on TV too. Maybe I should pick it up, I liked it then.