Adapted from James Clavell’s best-selling book with an international ensemble cast that includes celebrated Japanese actor and John Wick star Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun is a reinvention of the traditional, swashbuckling legend for the modern age and is now streaming exclusively on Disney +.
Shōgun is a tale of battling Japanese dynasties concerned about the future of the country after the death of the chancellor or Taiko. Whilst these different factions are wrestling for control, outsiders from Europe are making their way to their shores hoping to carve up the country between them and open up fertile trading opportunities. The ten-part series has all the intrigue and Machievllian political manoeuvring of Game of Thrones coupled with the lavishness and romance of a Hollywood historical epic.
Set in the 1600s in a Japan that is quaking under the weight of aristocratic and feudal disarray, when a ghost ship arrives on the shores of a small fishing village its strange cargo ignites further conflict throughout the country. The boat which was once part of a thriving Dutch fleet has been reduced to a dozen diseased men clinging on to their lives in desperate conditions. This crew includes the ship’s astute and resourceful senior officer in the shape of the British officer John Blackthorne played by a swaggering Cosmo Jarvis in a performance as self-assured and charismatic as a young Oliver Reed.
The headstrong, young Blackthorne is intent on staking his claim on this new part of the world. Having heard tales of the dominant Portuguese trade within Japan, Blackthorne is eager to introduce the Protestant English influence into the country and make lucrative connections, his startling hubris lands him in prison waiting to be executed, depending on his Portuguese rivals to translate his plight.
Blackthorne’s arrival is an unwelcome presence causing more disruption to the feuding Council of Regents, a group of five Lords from across the regions of Japan, which was set up after the death of the previous Taiko, its chieftain. The country is on a knife-edge and a potential civil war looms as the five lords scramble to take on the mantle of the supreme leadership with the Taiko’s son and heir being too young to take up the prestigious title. From the scheming and violent Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira) to the leprosy suffering Lord Onoshi the group have created a dark atmosphere full of paranoia and duplicity.
The lone voice of reason belongs to the enigmatic Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) who is descendant from a powerful ancestry of noblemen. Lord Toranaga assumes the role of protector and mentor to the young heir. His inscrutable and measured attitude and his influence on those around him make him a threat to the council who decide to join forces and eradicate him, lest he assume ultimate leadership.
As Lord Toranaga senses this impending impeachment he realises the opportunity that the so-called barbarian Blackthorne offers him. Blackthorne is his human bargaining chip who can be cleverly used to sow division between the bureaucrats and shift allegiances away from the Portuguese and their proxies on the council. Also with his ship containing a wealth of cannons and muskets he is not without material and military value either. Unaware that he is essentially Lord Toranaga’s useful idiot, Blackthorne sees himself as the Lord’s newly appointed safeguard. No longer a barbarian he is now christened Anjin, the Japanese word for navigator.
Lord Toranaga assigns the sphinxlike Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), an educated noblewoman, to serve as Blackthorne’s translator. A reserved yet tough-minded figure, she faces the internal conflict of obeying the teachings of Christianity that she has converted to, and honouring her loyalty to Lord Toranaga. Thrown together with the alluring Blackthorne, her emotions and beliefs are further tested.
Told through a mix of Japanese, English and Portuguese makes Shōgun a deep and multifaceted experience and refreshingly original
She becomes Blackthorne’s guide to the impenetrable wall of Japanese sensibilities, the ways of their culture and the humours of the mysterious Lord Toranaga himself. Told through a mix of languages; Japanese, English and Portuguese, it not only makes Shōgun a deep and multifaceted experience but also something refreshingly original.
Husband and wife writing team Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks (Top Gun: Maverick) have concentrated on constructing Shōgun as a truly immersive saga not just told through western eyes but with several viewpoints from warriors and lords to servants, samurai and ambitious land-grabbers. Every character feels like an alien to each other at various points throughout the show which adds to the uneasiness of the narrative. As an executive producer on the show, legendary actor Hiroyuki Sanada became a collaborative part of the team ensuring rigorous authenticity to how the story was shaped.
Through its diverse narratives Shōgun explores the destabilising effect of language. It interrogates how language is used to control, how powerless it can leave you and the sense that the truly shrewd and savvy succeed in reading people, situations and their actions, not just the words that come from their lips.
This coupled with the highly stylised production design and rich cinematography that moves from the swampy, fog-drenched landscape to the ornate castles and candlelit interiors make it a vivid, potent affair.
Blackthorne’s cocksure attitude and macho impulses make him the perfect comic foil to the wry and impish warrior Kashigi Yabu (Tadanobu Asano) who is tasked with delivering him to Lord Toranaga. The Morning Show’s Néstor Carbonell also brings a lightness of touch to his role as the beleaguered and cynical Portuguese sailor Vasco Rodrigues who comes to admire Blackthorne’s bullish attitude.
However it is the key relationships between the trio of Blackthorne, Lady Mariko and Lord Toranaga that give the show its real strength. Each character is masterfully rendered with their confusion, paranoia and mistrust boiling over at certain points as they attempt to navigate this precarious journey they are embarking on together – can they learn to depend on each other before it is too late?
Hiroyuki Sanada’s portrayal of the inscrutable Lord Toranaga is disarming in its quiet, brooding intelligence, possessing a subtlety that is beguiling. He is ably matched by the star-making turn from Panchinko’s Anna Sawai as Lady Mariko who skilfully weaves a sense of fragility and complexity within this seemingly unknowable character. It is a commanding and concentrated performance that is sure to push her further into the limelight.
Shōgun is a revelatory tale of power and ambition. It’s an electrifying, awe-inspiring, action spectacle that is unflinching in its gaze when it comes to the brutality of the era. Visually arresting with compelling, nuanced characters it’s a breathtaking, reimagining of the adventure serial that will captivate its audience.
FX’s Shōgun is now streaming exclusively on Disney+ with new episodes releasing weekly. Stream now or discover more at disneyplus.com