Starvation. A man boiled alive. Another beheaded. A gut-wrenching decision that will bring viewers to tears. And that’s just in the first episode of Shōgun.
Ever since the launch of the eighties TV reboot last month, word has quickly spread about the spectacular FX and Disney Plus series, which is set in the tumultuous feudal era of 1600s Japan.
Based on James Clavell’s novel of the same name, the story features fictional characters with direct parallels to historical figures who were pivotal to the power dynamics of the country centuries ago.
Some have compared Shōgun to the unpredictable and tense worlds of Game of Thrones and Succession. There might be violence aplenty, but the real danger comes in the slightest of eye movements or a single word said out of turn. No one is safe.
Metro.co.uk recently had the opportunity to visit several key locations in Japan where the real-life warlords and samurai convened, bringing the show to life to an even greater degree at magnificently preserved sites including Osaka Castle, Nijo Castle and Edo Castle in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.
While this latest adaptation of Clavell’s work was predominantly filmed in Canada, the painstaking detail that went into recreating the real rooms where Japan’s leaders made decisions that would impact the entire kingdom is breathtaking to behold, especially when put up against the real thing.
Shōgun tells the story of an Englishman called John Blackthorne, a pilot-major who winds up in Japan after suffering from starvation aboard a ship in a Dutch merchant fleet.
He gains the trust of the powerful Lord Yoshii Toranaga, as well as the confidence of the influential noblewoman Toda Mariko, as war threatens to break out between rival factions of the nation.
In the new adaptation, Toranaga is played by Japanese cinema legend Hiroyuki Sanada, whose credits include films such as The Last Samurai, The Twilight Samurai, The Wolverine, Bullet Train and John Wick: Chapter 4 to name a few.
He stars opposite Peaky Blinders star Cosmo Jarvis as Blackthorne – who’s being touted by bookmakers as a potential contender for James Bond – and Anna Sawai as Mariko, who’s appeared in Pachinko, Giri/Haji and the Fast and Furious franchise.
Critics and fans of Shōgun have already hailed the drama as a ‘masterpiece’ in reviews and across social media for its brilliant performances and authentic representation of Japanese culture.
