Gosh, this is a truly epic series, the scenery, the script, the fabulous costumes. Finally, Hiryuki Sanada ( Lord Yoshii Toronaga ) truly gets a meaty part to play in Japanese, rather than taking bit parts as Hollywood's go to oriental. Yeah, his face will already be familiar to you. Whereas Cosmos Jarvis (John Blackthorne) will be new to most of us, with that heavy set body swagger, the best theatrical pipes since Richard Burton, and more than a smidgen of raw sex appeal. And Anna Sawaii ( Lady Mariko ) plays this beautiful mysterious complex woman, she's the translator, the christian convert, but there is so much more going on behind that elegance and proper etiquette. In this series there is also a careful and judicious use of the really horrific, the bloodshed will come out of the blue at you, so be aware. Also quite a bit of seppuku, particularly by the end.
The story line, well, its too complicated to fully explain. Blackthorne turns up with his ship and crew, intent on kicking the Portuguese and their Catholicism out of Japan, and replacing it with a bit of good old English Protestant free trade. But all these plans go awry pretty quickly. He is given Lady Mariko to translate and introduce him to the bafflingly formal world of Japanese Court procedures, where no one says what they think, or really mean. In a way we see this exotic but uptight world entirely through Blackthorne's eyes.
Toronaga is threatened with being impeached by his fellow Regency Council. But he knows how to fox them and plays many a cunning ploy. He is definitely someone who executes the long game, always with an eye set on where he wishes to end up. To do this he will manipulate both friend and foe if needs be. Blackthorne gets drawn into being used in this political intrigue and into a dangerous illicit affair with Mariko. For it turns out she is the daughter of a previous Shogun, who was wrongly assassinated for ultimately doing the right thing. And she has waited a lifetime for her moment of revenge. But really, none of this quite captures the tightly turned intricacy of this stories cat and mouse nature. The charming duplicity of Yorishige (Tadanobu Asano) is just one character in this series who is seemingly playing for both sides. And both sides know that.
Historically it takes some huge liberties, but it does very effectively capture the mood of internecine family conflict and often war, that the soon to be Edo period, Tokugawa Shogunate had to actively contain. Shogun was based on a novel of the same name from 1975 by James Clavell. It is set thirty plus years before the Portuguese and Roman Catholicism are thrown out of Japan, and subsequently closes its borders to the outside world for nearly four hundred years.
There are just so many heart stopping moments in this series, of beauty. of tragedy, not to mention cinematography. Its no surprise this series has won 4 Golden Globes and a record breaking 18 Emmys, for its acting leads, as well as music and technical gongs. I was an emotional wreck by the end of it. A second series is promised, but just how they are going to top this one I do not know.
CARROT REVIEW - 8/8
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