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It seems like very high quality, but I dropped it (after one episode on Hulu) because I had trouble following the storyline. (Sometimes I am like that).
As a separate matter, it annoyed me that Japanese is properly spoken and subtitled, but the characters actually speak English, and pretend that it is Portuguese.
Why ruin a perfectly good tale by inserting useless elaborations to satisfy an overly indulged, sated viewing public addicted to fantasy superheroes? It's like insisting on some sort of "everything bagel" all the time instead of a more refined, palate-cleansing simpler one. Do aliens (the epitome of an underrepresented minority) have their own social justice warriors or something?
I guess someone thought so when Keanu Reeves took the special operations revenge mission of 47 Ronin and made it supernatural. And now at least one person wants something similar for Shogun
Years ago I read the novel, several times. That did make the 1980's mini-series more comprehensible to me when I saw it on broadcast TV. Years ago I even rented the mini-series on video tape from Block Buster. The original mini-series does not hold up upon re-viewing as the novel does on re-reading.
I do not have cable TV, nor do I have a subscription service currently showing Shogun. From the sounds of it, I'll want to renew a subscription as the new mini-series sounds quite impressive.
One quibble (without even seeing the new show) - Nestor Carbonell as Rodriguez might be a waste of talent in that role. The story revolves around four characters: Lord Yoshi Toranaga, Pilot-Major John Blackstone, Lady Toda Mariko, and Jesuit priest Father Marvin Alvito. Damien Thomas played the role of Alvito in the original mini-series and was a superb fit for the character. Knowing Carbonell's range and ability, I would have rather seen him play Father Alvito, as IMO he has the chops to meet and exceed Thomas's portrayal of the character.
Regarding the role of Blackthorne in the story - yes, powerful factions seek to use him as a tool. In the novel, Toranago was question by a subordinate why he place such value on Blackthorne. Toranaga replied that Blackthorne was a chess piece in the game, more than a pawn, perhaps even a rook.
...
Back in the day the common person in Japan thought that both the novel and the original mini-series didn't accurately portray Japan during the time period of the story. From what I've read/heard, Hiroyuki Sanada only agreed produce the series and to play Toranaga if it was done "right", seeking to cast only Japanese actors in Japanese roles and correcting the historical inaccuracies and misconceptions of both the book and the original mini-series.
Does anyone know how different this new series differs from the novel? I read the novel in the 1980s and don't remember anything. Lately, these types of series take great liberty with the original source material and fictionalize much of it, as in Feud Truman vs the Swans and some of the Masterpiece period series on PBS.
Does anyone know how different this new series differs from the novel? I read the novel in the 1980s and don't remember anything. Lately, these types of series take great liberty with the original source material and fictionalize much of it, as in Feud Truman vs the Swans and some of the Masterpiece period series on PBS.
When asked about the changes this new adaptation had to make, Clavell noted that with a book as big as Shogun, they need “to pick pieces and focuses” as they “[couldn’t] show it all even in 10 hours:”
“Well, in a book as large as my father wrote, and I don't know how many pages it was, but it was a couple of 1000 pages. It's a process of taking out what you want. You need to pick pieces and focuses from the book that big you can't show it all even in 10 hours.”
FX was “very confident of doing this version from the Japanese point of view,” she continued, and that they wanted “a more ensemble cast:”
“So when we originally spoke to FX and Gina Balian and John Landgraf, they were very, very confident of doing this version from the Japanese point of view. And I think that the original version had been more from [John] Blackthorne's point of view, the Englishmen coming to Japan. In this version, they wanted a more ensemble cast. And they wanted to show it from Toranaga's point of view, as much as from Blackthorne's point of view.”
Clavell admitted that, in a way, this approach is “more completely accurate to the book:”
“So in that process, different aspects of the novel were highlighted… In this point of view we get, which is in a way more completely accurate to the book, we get everyone's point of view. And my father was really, really multi-layered in how he presented the points of view from 360 degrees from everyone's perspective. And that was always the intent of FX to do justice to that view. And I think that all the choices were made with that in mind.”
I read the book but did so a long time ago. My memory of many aspects is very fuzzy. On top of that, I'm not a political intrique-savvy person in general so much went over my head. I tend to be more interested in everyday living/culture/art aspects of unfamiliar nations. Also watched the original series several times but as we all know, it couldn't and didn't present everything in the book. While the story is still in very early stages and some time must be spent getting viewers basically oriented, think I'd agree that the new series does seem to portray more of the Japanese POV, not that of Blackthorne. I tend to be more sympathetic to peripheral characters who get dragged into the conflict involuntarily instead of the main players. IMHO sometimes they represent more of the reality of the times. Annoying ad breaks aside, looks like a fun ride!
It seems like very high quality, but I dropped it (after one episode on Hulu) because I had trouble following the storyline. (Sometimes I am like that).
As a separate matter, it annoyed me that Japanese is properly spoken and subtitled, but the characters actually speak English, and pretend that it is Portuguese.
I agree that it is hard to follow. There are a lot of characters and the politics is complicated. I still haven’t figured out why Ishido had any reservation re: killing Blackthorne and how Toranaga was using Blackthorne in his quest to divide the Council. It really doesn’t make sense to me.
And, yes, I completely agree that it is annoying that all of the English-speaking characters talk about how they are speaking Portuguese even as they are speaking English. That was a huge misstep. The series would have been so much better if the characters were actually speaking Portuguese.
Otherwise, the cast is excellent. I especially enjoyed Nestor Carbonell as Rodrigues.
And, yes, I completely agree that it is annoying that all of the English-speaking characters talk about how they are speaking Portuguese even as they are speaking English. That was a huge misstep. The series would have been so much better if the characters were actually speaking Portuguese.
Suspect they considered that Japanese subtitled dialogue on top of subtitled Portuguese dialog would simply be too much of a hurdle for the average TV audience to climb over. As the host country where everything occurs is Japan and there were more central Japanese characters (all of them speaking dialog in more scenes) than there were Portuguese, Japanese became the higher priority in terms of translation.
Last edited by Parnassia; 03-04-2024 at 02:25 PM..
Suspect they considered that Japanese subtitled dialogue on top of subtitled Portuguese dialog would simply be too much of a hurdle for the average TV audience to climb over. As there were more central Japanese characters (all of them speaking in more scenes) than there were Portuguese, they became the higher priority in terms of translations.
Along with actors with the skill set and box office potential available that FX could sell to their audience who are fluent in Portuguese. Now if the series was made for say Brazilian TV then it would just be another of the many foreign language series available on streamers. Specifically Disney/Hulu alone doesn't seem to put big money into anything besides their Princesses, Marvel superheroes and Star Wars without that big enough broadcast partner to cover part of the cost
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