The Recap: Shōgun – “Chapter One: Anjin”
Fans of the 1980 James Clavell’s Shōgun miniseries will be as ecstatic as I am to finally lay eyes on this new vision of the iconic story. This Hulu Original looks to have an incredible style and cast to go along with the already stellar design and promotion of the show. I feel like I have seen ads for this series for the past year and now we finally get to feast.
For those of you just jumping on board the Shōgun train, the story follows the exploits of ship pilot John Blackthorne. His Dutch merchant ship (or pirate ship) lands on the Japanese coast with a crew of starving and sick men. Blackthorne becomes the spokesman for the crew as he speaks Portuguese and they were already on the islands. Blackthorne finds himself thrust into a tense and deadly situation as Lord Toranaga jockeys for power among the other Daimyos in a potential quest to be Shōgun of all Japan.
That’s the story in its simplest form but it’s so much more than that. It is very much a character piece on John Blackthorne (played here by Cosmo Jarvis) and his preconceived notions about the “barbarian” Japanese. He is a flawed man with questionable plans upon landing on the coast but he is a fast learner and quickly discovers that he knows less than he ever could have imagined. The series also spends a considerable amount of time with Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). He’s waist deep in the political intrigue during a “peaceful” time in the country’s history but the pressure is building and this puppy is about to explode. Toranaga is a smart man and one who understands the significance of Blackthorne’s ship and abilities.
The series looks incredible. Not a thing has been spared and the smartest thing they could have done was have the actors speaking Japanese which I’m thankful they did. The original series is one of the reasons I had such a deep love for Japanese culture and, to this day, I still remember much of the language I learned from that original miniseries.
As a first episode, we get to meet our main character, witness the turmoil in the lives of Toranaga and his crew, and learn that old rivalries in Europe will also spill over in the Far East. It is a fantastic start to a series that is guaranteed to get a lot of attention.
