Brief Story Line
Story was set in the year 1600 where a trading ship from England was stranded on the coast of Japan in Izu province. It was only left with few crews that included Pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis - Lady Macbeth, Persuasion etc) who were immediately taken prisoner by the locals. Kasugi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano - Kate, 47 Ronin etc), the ruler of Izu planned to use the ship for his own benefit. But Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada - John Wick: Chapter 4, Army of the Dead etc) whom Yabushige served, somehow got wind of it and took over the ship instead. Toranaga also instructed Blackthorne to be brought to Osaka where he was meeting with other regents, including Lord Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira - Gran Turismo, Giri/Haji TV series etc).
When Blackthorne reached Osaka and met with Toranaga, the Jesuit from Portugal, Father Martin Alvito (Tommy Bastow - The Crossing TV series etc) was asked to interpret. However, Blackthorne showed his distrust as the Portuguese Catholics were at war with the England Protestants. During this first meet, Toranaga was accompanied by Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai - Monarch: Legacy of Monsters TV series, F9: The Fast Saga etc) who had converted to Catholic and was able to speak Portuguese fluently.
As Toranaga was in the process of impeachment by other regents, he had to search for ways to save himself and his family by using Blackthorne. Meanwhile Blackthorne also struggled to save himself and his crew so they could return to England. So how would the story conclude? You could find them all in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
This series intrigued me as I had watched the first TV adaptation back in the 1990s when my family started to subscribe new cable TV in Indonesia. It was one of the many shows that I was delighted to get the chance, even if it was an old one. However, I could not remember the story at all (or maybe I was too young to understand it). All I could recall was there was a lot of dialogues in Japanese and it was mainly about English man stranded in Japan who had romantic relation with a Japanese woman and had some violent fights using samurai.
Both series were based on 1975 novel of the same title written by James Clavell which was a fictionalized version of historical events in the 17th century Japan. But the characters who were loosely based on actual persons were using different names. I am not going to write them one by one as this is not an article about the novel. What I am going to write though would be the amazing performances by the cast who portrayed the characters, especially Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai. I read that critics were universal in praising this series and it was well received by Japanese audiences too. Credit has to be given to the series creators Rachel Kondo and her husband Justin Marks for doing remarkable job.
For me personally though, this series was a bit heavy for my taste. I know that it was great and all, but I felt it was a bit too intricate and complex. The political struggle was quite enjoyable, but I honestly thought it would have more action. Instead there was a lot of drama which involved the main characters. I did admire the wonderful setting and obvious high production value. The special effects especially in the use of cannons were also awesome. I liked the first three episodes which to me was quite intense with Blackthorne's obvious cultural shock. Subsequently though, the focus shifted more towards the politics and it lacked the intensity.to my opinion
I also felt the 9th episode was extremely good. The drama was greatly shown and the ending was quite shocking. However the finale to me felt a bit anticlimactic. It did give a hint of the end result, but I could not help feeling it require additional episodes. I even thought there would be a second season. Not until I read more on the series that I found out the series creator purposely did it that way. So we just had to fill in the blanks by ourselves. Oh aside from the names I mentioned earlier, there were many other support cast, with one very important character of Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikado - Himizu etc) and few familiar faces like Nestor Carbonell (Bates Motel TV series etc) as Vasco Rodriguez Spanish sailor, Joaquim de Almeida (Road House 2024 version etc) and others.
Overall this was no doubt an extraordinary series that managed to satisfy critics. It probably would have win awards in the future as well. Sadly I was a bit overwhelmed by it. I might incur the wrath of people who absolutely love the series for saying this, but there were times that I used speed up to skip to the parts that I thought was important just so that I could quickly reach the conclusion. Again this does not mean the series was boring or anything, it was just not exactly what I had in mind when I started watching. For people who love heavy political drama set in 17th century Japan with lots of historical references, I am very sure it would be very entertaining. However, it might be more challenging for those preferring different type of series.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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