TV
SHŌGUN
THE BOOK-TURNED-TV-SHOW-TURNED-ANOTHER-TV-SHOW
Showing his mettle — Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada).
★★★★
OUT NOW (DISNEY+) / EPISODES VIEWED 8 OF 10
SHOWRUNNER Justin Marks
CAST Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroto Kanai
PLOT 17th century Japan is on the knife-edge of war. The arrival of a shipwrecked Englishman (Jarvis) triggers a wave of scheming, violence and spiritual reckoning.
JAMES CLAVELL’S 1975 historical-fiction novel Shōgun was first adapted for TV in 1980. As with that earlier effort, this adaptation — creatively led by Top Gun: Maverick writer Justin Marks and his wife Rachel Kondo —is set during a time of upheaval in Japan: five factions seek control of the country, whilst Portuguese Catholics hope to control its soul. Seeking ascendancy from the societal fraying are three key characters: the measured but militant Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada); his opportunistic, freshly beached advisor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis); and their Catholic-convert translator, Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai). Together they attempt to control —or become —cogs in the machine of power. Their devious, often violent mechanics would feel at home in the halls of Westeros, the plot growing knottier as honour, debt and deception entwine.