James Clavell's Shogun
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Movie Reviews of James Clavell's Shogun
Movie Review: TAKUSAN DIJOBE DESU
Summary: 5 Stars
Takusan dijobe desu or "this movie is very ok alot.
I had lived in Japan between Yokohama and Tokyo between 1962 and 1964 on the Tokaido Road, that great ancient highway between Tokyo (Edo) and Kyoto (Miyoko), so during the summer of 1975 as SHOGUN the book released I bought the book and was immediately carried back to the real Nippon or Japan. Admittedly it was medieval Japan, but it was in action and custom a Japan I could understand. In fact, at Odawara at the foot of Mount Fujiyama and the Hakone Mountains, I several times saw a remaining grey-stone medieval castle identical to the ones in SHOGUN.
For those of you who have never resided in Japan among the everday people, trust in the fact that this movie will bring you very close to the real thing, although several hundred years removed. The outlawed Samurai era did not completely leave Japan until almost 1900, and though it passed, most of the custom of the Japan I knew was yet controlled by that tradition. Anywhere one went on the island of Honshu, where SHOGUN has much of its action, Shinto or Buddhist all exhibited its worship of ancestor and military war lord past. Even the 'willow world' in Tokyo yet remained in spirit if not actual locations of Yoshiwara Yukwaku of the Ginza area.
If one has any interest in a very good story and a very good movie then one can do no better than view SHOGUN. The story and the action are both almost seemless. This epic movie truly captures the essence and spirit of medieval Japan as well as some of today.
Wakaru, "to understand", is what SHOGUN will aid you in doing.
Arigato gozaimasu, Sayonara. Thank you very much, and good-bye.
Semper Fi.
Movie Review: An Amazing Mini-Series - DVD Could Have Been A Little Better
Summary: 5 Stars
What more is there to say about this mini-series? It's incredible, so check it out. The picture quality is incredible (compare it to the 2 hour movie edit, which looks dark and grainy - the DVD looks like it was filmed in the last couple of years!), and the sound is great too.I must say that after finding out there's a 12 hour version of this, I was a little disappointed. The 9 hours was engaging, but I was left wanting so much more. Now I know why! :) Surely Paramount could have fit another three hours onto the 4 discs? Also, why did they take out the nudity? The movie edit has it, and it's not like this version on DVD was going to be broadcast on television. The movie edit version also has a different scene on the docks, when a blinded Blackthorne is being escorted to his ship past the Black Ship and her crew. In the mini-series version, Father Dell'Aqua along with a group of Christian samurai are confronted by Ferreria, the Black Ship captain, and his crew, who intend to burn Blackthorne on a stake. In the movie version, there is no Ferreria character, nor is there a Father Dell'Aqua, so the dock scene that version was an alternate take! Blackthorne is instead escorted to the docks area by his brown samurai where he stops to have an amicable conversation with Rodriguez who is now the Black Ship captain rather than just the pilot. They must have planned the movie edit from day one for this alternate scene to even exist. It's too bad they didn't include this as part of a deleted scenes feature.
Overall, the set is amazing. The making of featurette is very interesting, although the featurettes about the history of Japan and aspects of its culture are somewhat dull. It's definitely worth the money.
Movie Review: I've Waited For This For Years!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've waited for years for Shogun to be released on DVD, and I'm delighted with it. Yes, a booklet with information and chapter listings would have been nice, but that's probably not going to be a dealbreaker for many people.I'd like to know what some of the other reviewers think was deleted in this edition. I was very familiar with the miniseries, having seen it several times and having taped it at the time on an old Betamax, and I didn't notice anything missing in the DVD edition...except that accidental helicopter shadow! Nothing that I expected to see was gone. As an earlier customer pointed out, the original show ran for 12 hours on NBC because of all the commercials, network promos, opening titles and closing credits in every segment, etc. Take out all that padding, and 9 hours of actual program content sounds about right. If anybody can identify any actual deletions, I'd be interested in hearing what they are.
I would have liked to have seen the brief nude scenes of Mariko in the bath included as much as the next guy. But they were only in the European version anyway. (Americans are considered by the world to be backward children in these matters.) They were never in the American version, so although they would have been a welcome bonus, we can't say they were "deleted."
It was a real pleasure to start playing Shogun when the DVD package arrived, and Amazon.com had the best price for it that I could find, so that was an added benefit. Never had I seen it with the sharpness and clarity of the DVD. Maybe it took the advent of DVD to do justice to what is, for me, the greatest of all miniseries.
Movie Review: If you have A.D.D. you'll hate it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading some of these reviews, I wonder if anyone watches a movie or mini-series to be entertained by it. When you go down the line of people who gave this great title three or lower stars, you'll find it mostly comes from people who try to express their "true" historical knowledge, or simply didn't have the attention span for a drama of this caliber. Who cares?I was 8 years old when Shogun came to television for the first time and my mother, a single-parent who never had much time for TV, sat enthralled and entranced by it. It was probably the way I looked watching Battlestar Galactica, or Saturday morning cartoons, and during whole time Shogun was airing my mother could not be bothered to pull herself away from this wonderful drama.
When I was a teen it aired again and I couldn't pull myself away, and it inspired my own interest in Japan and its culture. I submit to whoever is reading this the so-called history buffs, or historians who are giving this mini-series, or the book it was based on, low marks, it's only to flex their own scholastic muscle. It's pathetic posturing, really and has nothing to do with the true quality of the story.
Shogun continues to be one of the greatest stories ever told, and among the best adaptations of a novel ever done, right up there with "Lonesome Dove", and "Gone with the Wind". The charm of Richard Chamberlain's portrayal of Blackthorne (I don't need to know who the character was based on), the beauty and grace of Yôko Shimada's portrayal of Mariko and the rest of the wonderful cast, combine to bring us a tale for the ages of Feaudal politics and forbidden romance.
I loved it.
Movie Review: A Memorable Mini-Series
Summary: 5 Stars
Even after 25 years since its original release, the 10-hour adaptation of James Clavell's 'Shogun' is as good as ever with a great screenplay and direction carefully revised and supervised by the author himself. The lavish production is further supported by an excellent cast of American and Japanese actors.
Chamberlain is John Blackthorne, a 17th-century English captain of a Dutch trading vessel that found itself run ashore on the coast of feudal Japan. Blackthorne soon finds himself in the middle of a war between two samurai warlords struggling for dominion of the island kingdom. Although initially suspicious of him, Blackthorne is soon appreciated by Toranaga (Toshiro Mifune) who takes him as a confidant to help him against his rival, Ishido: having much use for a man who knows a lot about war ships, fire arms, and many other things Japan might otherwise need from the West. Although initially overwhelmed by culture shock, Blackthorne soon becomes as Japanes as can be with the help of his patron and the beautiful Lady Mariko (Yoko Shimada.) Despite his rapid learning and loyalty to the new Shogun, Blackthorne is still a foreigner who is unaccustomed to the subtle and rigid customs of of his host country; he also realizes that this island will forever be his prison.
This is an excellent mini-series with a good screenplay, great direction, a lavish production, and a great cast. Chamberlain performs his manly role as a hardy sailor quite well despite his being a dandy in real life: all the marks of a good actor. This is a great mini-series to rent or own which the whole family can watch.