Last night, the El Capitan Theatre was packed for the presentation of the first episode of Shōgun! It was free offered to D23 members a few days ago, on February 8th. The mini-series is set to debut on Hulu and Disney+ on February 27th. It is of course based on the James Clavell 1975 novel. This was his first novel in his Asian Saga, a six book series that finished with Whirlwind (1979).
It was recently published as Shōgun Part 1 (699 pages!) and Shōgun Part 2 (856 pages!) tying into the mini-series. The book led to a mini-series in 1980 that won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. It starred Richard Chamberlain as John Blackthorne, Japanese acting legend, Toshirō Mifune, played Lord Toranaga, and John Rhys-Davies starred as Vasco Rodrigues. The night started with a performance by Taikoproject, the group of musicians led by Bryan Yamami and Masato Baba. Info on the group is at: https://taikoproject.org. It was an energetic performance with the taiko drums that is my favorite thunder making instrument.
Next, a panel of the Shōgun cast and crew walked on stage; co-creators and writers, Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, Anna Sawai who plays Mariko, the actor who portrays John Blackthorne, Cosmo Jarvis, and finally the actor for Lord Toranaga, Hiroyuki Sanada. The first actor to speak was Sanada who was asked about working on the limited series, he is also a producer for it, “We had a long, long journey and worked together, East meets West, dream team, created this show. We tried to make it as authentic as much possible. We could hire Japanese actors from Japan and also Japanese crew who had experience creating samurai drama.” The next speaker was Cosmo Jarvis who said, “Firstly, I hope people will become acquainted with a vast array of very endearing characters across the board and they will serve as a catalyst to explore Japanese history for which there is a lot.” The last part got some laughs from the audience.
Sawai spoke a challenging part of filming, “I think something specific to this show is that we are obviously wearing period garment, kimonos, at times I would be wearing seven layers of clothing and that’s a lot of weight when added with a long wig. The higher rank you were, the longer hair you had, and Mariko is pretty up there. I was carrying so much weight and by the end of the show I really had muscular shoulders.” Her last comment also had some laughs. The first episode was screened. It begins with Blackthorne, Pilot-Major of the ship, Erasmus.
The ship ends up in Japan which is divided with the death of the ruler. Lord Toranaga is now captive to the Council of Regents, his rivals, while the heir is at his castle. The novel was told entirely from Blackthorne’s perspective so this opens up the wider political landscape in Japan. The politics and adult content makes me think it is Game of Thrones meets The Last Samurai (2003). The mini-series has some incredible production design from the sets, costumes, and also the stunning cinematography. Shōgun is a powerful look at Japan of the 16th century adapting Clavell's novel with stunning visuals and acting!
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