FX has premiered the official trailer for its new limited series adaptation of James Clavell’s famed feudal Japan-set best-selling novel “Shogun”. Justin Marks and his wife Rachel Kondo pen the story which charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai. The story begins in 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Hiroyuki Sanada (“Mortal Kombat”) plays Lord Yoshi Toranaga, a brilliant strategist and powerful daimyo who is nevertheless isolated and outnumbered by his enemies amongst the Council of Regents at Osaka Castle. Cosmo Jarvis (“Lady Macbeth”) plays John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked and marooned in a nearby fishing village – stuck in a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him. Anna Sawai (“Pachinko”) is Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills and dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance. The property was previously adapted into the celebrated 1980 miniseries with Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada in the three key roles. The new take tells the story from both a Western and Japanese perspective. The series is set to launch in February on Hulu and FX. https://www.darkhorizons.com/official-trailer-fxs-shogun-mini-series/ This looks really good, looking forward to it....
Sanada is such a good actor. I'd watch just because he's involved. Looks like a visually stunning series.
haven't watched the original in like 15 years. may have to go find it. I don't think i like this dollar-store tom hardy actor who plays the lead.
Hiroyuki Sanada is Hollywood's default Japanese person in every role that requires a Japanese person.
I am a fan of the book and saw the 80’s series, the whole series was on YouTube a few years ago. This does look great but I have some concerns about it. In the book Mariko isn’t a samurai as there were no female samurais. She’s a translator and key confidante to Toranaga but not a bodyguard or an assassin. She’s a bad ass character without having to also be some super fighter. Shogun the book was based on the rise of Tokugawa Ieyesu and there actually was an Englishman who did enter his service. For anyone interested in Japanese culture and history it is a very good book.
I'll need to check this out. This is getting rave reviews. Many saying it reminds them of Game of Thrones. I was hoping it was actually as good as it looked in the trailers.
Same here, reviews have been stellar across the board. Buddy of mine watched the first episode and was very impressed, gonna watch the first two this weekend....
I got the Hulu $1/mo deal around Christmas. It mostly sucks but I will definitely be happy to be able to watch this.
Being faithful to the source material (until they ran out of material and budget) was what made GoT so good. Most showrunners like to use the source material as a superficial skinsuit with a built in audience, and then change everything (Wheel of Time, Witcher, etc.) Haven't read the Shogun book, but the first episode was great. Turning the females into samurai would be so cringe.
Hmm...Women weren't Samurai but there were woman warriors known as Onna-musha. Does the show explicitly label her as a Samurai? I just had a yen to watch the Lone Wolf and Cub series again.
sanada is the default japanese guy for playing samurais/action roles. i assume this is so because of the twilight samurai movie.
My introduction to him and having that film win best foreign at the Oscar also helped and rush hour 3 lolol
