Shogun
Disney+
If you’ve ever felt stress learning a new language in time for an exam, consider the pressure felt by an Englishman washed up in 17th-century feudal Japan. Not only is the ship’s navigator John Blackthorne half dead from starvation and scurvy, but he finds himself faced by indecipherable locals so suspiciously hostile that they decapitate a man right in front of him.
It’s an emphatic way to make a point and it’s a good thing they don’t know what Blackthorne is saying in return. “I piss on your whole damn country!” wouldn’t seem the most diplomatic approach. Then again, even a polite conversation can be deadly in this alien land.
The beheading is a brief but potent moment early in the stunning new imagining of James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shogun, famously turned into a TV series in 1980, because it leaves you in no doubt as to just how high the stakes are in a kingdom where codes of honour go hand in hand with acts of casual brutality. It comes just after a scene of political intrigue where one false move from anyone in the room will (as we discover) lead to their baby being executed in a horrifying twist on seppuku.
In such ways, this Shogun is a high-class, high-intelligence drama punctuated with visceral jolts and, after two episodes, all the signs are that it could be something special.
Advertisement
Remaking a cultural phenomenon always seems like a self-defeating endeavour because how can you conjure up an impact that belonged to a particular moment? Yet everything here really is beautifully rendered, the co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo layering in treacherous machinations and gradually unfolding adventure (a dramatic shipwreck scene; a vertiginous cliffside rescue) within more expansive themes about religious conflict and self-identity.
So how does Cosmo Jarvis measure up in the Richard Chamberlain role of Blackthorne? Actually he proves to be excellent, certainly a bit more than the poor man’s Tom Hardy you might initially suspect. His earthiness provides a necessary shot of energy as he alternates between a booming delivery (“MY NAME IS JOHN BLACKTHORNE!”) and a muttered growl like Richard Burton in a particularly black mood.
His hubris is quickly brought down a peg, but he still makes a robust foil to his counterpoint, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada, in the role previously played by Toshiro Mifune), who conveys weary experience and infinite wisdom with just a slow blink. Toranaga is one of five samurai lords making up an interim council that is ruling Japan after the death of the taiko (the supreme reigning leader). Being on the wrong side of his rival Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira) sees him facing impeachment and execution within days, yet Toranaga is shrewd enough to see that the captured “barbarian” — or “Anjin”, as Blackthorne will become known — could be used as a pawn, an ally even, to his benefit.
So the Protestant Blackthorne finds himself cleaned up and bonding cautiously with Toranaga in their shared enmity towards the Portuguese (who have the monopoly on trade in their “secret empire in the east”) and the Catholic Church’s Jesuit order. Blackthorne and Toranaga can only converse via an interpreter — enter the third lead character, the quietly formidable Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), to translate. Their interactions are supposedly conducted in Portuguese (the only shared language in 1600 Japan), but for the benefit of viewers they speak in the TV lingua franca of English, which is frankly a relief.
Your only requirement here is patience. I fear that any viewers who idly phone-scroll while watching the first 20 minutes will find themselves completely lost. Pay attention, however, and the world of feudal Japan looks set to be as richly immersive as Westeros in Game of Thrones — and just as lethal. Having navigated the constant threat of execution early on, Blackthorne is then told: “If you’re an ally of Toranago you won’t leave Japan alive.”
Advertisement
He’s going to need those Japanese lessons, and quick.
★★★★☆
Looking for something else to watch? Try our critics’ round-up of the latest best things to stream in the UK.
