Shogun is everything I expected, there was not a minute I felt lost on the first two episodes, everything makes sense from start to finish, there are certain scenes that are very classic and predictable also if you have been watching the trailers and clips release along the way of the past two months then most likely you would know most of the story, only sad part about it is that this is a ten episodes mini series.
I did my preview post about this mini series about a month ago with the expectations that it was going to be a hit and so far is filling all the boxes, Shogun is the story of Yoshii Toranaga one of the five most powerful men in Japan at the moment who is been put between a rock and a hard place by the other four men who complete the Japan current council until the Heir of the throne is old enough to rule, Toranaga comes from a strong and well respected family, other four Daimyo felt he was getting to powerful and with the excuse he could over throne the Heir has decided to deliberate Toronaga's, four against one. The obvious outcome is his death until a pirate ship arrive his shores, at the time Catholics Portuguese were at war with Protestants, this almost wrecked ship same as the tribulation are protestant, pilot John Blackthorne has valuable information that most don't know about their Catholic allies and could brake Japan in two once the truth is known.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2788316/
- Platform: FXNOW
John intentionally was trying to get to Japan without much luck they spend days at sea without food or wind, no actual direction until they finally arrive to Japan, can't say if it was pure luck, the captain gave up at some point but John never did, at the time lucky for him there were Catholic Japanese who speak some Portuguese but as in any other series where you arrive to a country and language are not even close it becomes a huge barrier.
Young village leader, Kashigi Omi gets notified of the ship and took over, when they got to the ship there was still some men alive but most were starving very close to be dead, Kashigi also find gold, silver, weapons and twenty canons, not necessarily a merchants ship for the amount of weapons, every men during the time was trying to grasp as much power they could so was Kashigi who decided to call his uncle, Kashigi Yabushigue; who had enough power to take the goods from the ship although both were working at close doors, without notifying the original land lord, Toronaga.
The series has so much rank structure that everything has to happen in certain order and you most likely knows who can and can't call the shots so there are not many surprises going on, its how strict and proud this men are that will amaze you. Yoshii Toranaga is called by the rest of the Council to decide what will be his faith due to him becoming too powerful and could over throne the Heir, although that has never been his intentions, the man is just too popular and smart, people like him and are willing to fight for him, he is invited to the Osaka castle and is now hostage until then.
Yoshii might be at Osaka but he has eyes and ears all around his territory and has been notified about John Blackthorn's ship, at the moment he only knew the basics, he sends his right hand Toda Hiromatsu to take over the ship, pilot and all the goods inside of the ship once he got more information about it.
Yabushige arrive town invited by his nephew Omi, both though this would be a piece of cake, John also had the idea of going back to his ship and would be easy but none of the three knew Toronaga already had plans for everything concerning them, John will become a distraction that will keep Toronaga and his clan alive for some time.
I mention before that when language becomes a barrier and the character depends on a translator usually everything goes to shit for him because the translator is not on his side or interest, specially when you are prisoner, in this case it was way worst, Catholics and Protestant were at war, the translator a Catholic Priest who immediately told Yabushige John was pirate and should kill him, at fist Toronaga was expecting this to be true too because at taking John to Osaka, other Catholic Daimyo would demand his dead just because of honor, they cant have a Pirate in the city and must be dealt before they vote regarding Toronaga giving him more time to think. Yabushigue didn't care about any of this, he is not Catholic and is men of ambitions and action, during John audience with Yabushige he notice how John hate the Priest and he love it, spear his life and order to take John for a bath and change his clothe.
While all this was happening Yoshii was in Osaka thinking how he could survive and protect the Heir who the deceased Taiko ask Yoshii to protect at all cost after he is gone, those closer to the Heir knew this too but it was four against one a fight he could not take at the moment, Ochi No Kata the women in charge of the Heir even asks Yoshii to try to take the place of Shogun until the Heir is old enough to rule, Yoshii doesn't want this because when there is a Shogun usually things don't go too well, Shogun is more like a dictator something he does not agree with, at least at the moment.
A series of events start to unfold once John is put on a ship to Osaka, events that will lead to the rupture of the Council and Japan.
Episode one of Shogun was excellent, I really enjoy it and its hard to give a 9/10 but this series so far deserve it, everything is so neat and detailed, I not an expert on Japanese culture but at least it looks very original in my ignorant opinion. For some people the only downside is that you will have to read a lot of subtitles, I'm sure there must be a dubbed version but that's like watching manga in English, there is no glory in to that; watching content in the original language at least for me makes it more special, when a production in another language provides this kind of impact and you still felt it was good, has to be very special because besides the fact that you are distracted reading subtitles you still feel its a good plot.
The episode was a total match of chess, Toronaga moving every piece he could on his favor without braking the rules, same rules that got him in Osaka as a political prisoner, same rules that four other men are using against him, this show is definitely a must watch.
#ShogunSeries, #HistoricalDrama, #JamesClavell, #17thCentury, #JohnBlackthorne, #EnglishSailor, #Shipwrecked, #JapaneseCulture, #FeudalJapan, #LordToranaga, #Daimyo, #LadyMariko, #WilliamAdams, #Samurai, #TokugawaIeyasu, #CulturalClashes, #PoliticalPower, #Intrigue, #PremiereDate, #TelevisionSeries