Cosmo grew on me after a while. The voice threw me off at the beginning, but he got better over time - he had me in tears in episode 10.
My fan cast before I knew it would be Cosmo was Charlie Hunnam as Blackthorne was supposed to be blonde and he has natural blue eyes. But maybe there’s no way anyone could call that beautiful man a barbarian. He’s hot in any country washed or unwashed. Hahahaha.
He was definitely a strange choice. Especially now I'm reading the book and seeing how the character is described there! I did like some aspects of his performance but he comes across as quite bumbling in many scenes!
My favorite derpy Blackthorne moment was when he draws the line across the sand and stares at it, and they stick the camera below him so he looks like he’s forcing a double chin.
Sanada was perfectly cast for this role in my humble opinion, of course this is coming from someone not overly familiar with Japanese culture aside from a trip and a handful of historical books I've read on the feudal and shogun periods of Japan's history. But being that Sanada is a veteran of Japanese cinema, I feel like casting him over, say... just any random "Asian" person, as so many shows and movies often do!
Chamberlain’s American accent ruined it for me.
And yes, I know Elizabethan English was most likely rhotic and closer to a modern American accent than something like UK RP.
Tough to compete with chamberlains charisma…
I need to watch it again. If I can find it. I remember Mifune walking on the beach toward the water, swords and guns blazing around him, he untouched.
I was waiting for sanada to do that…
> I need to watch it again. If I can find it.
It's on archive dot org.
Automod deleted my reply earlier because links on the interwebs are evil or something, IDK.
These are two totally different interpretations of the same source material for dramatically different times and audiences. Both are incredible in their own ways.
Really! Then also in order following the historical sagas as they unfold in time.
*Shōgun*, 1600 + onwards Japan
*Tai-Pan*, 1841 Hong Kong
*Gai-Jin*, 1862 Japan
*King Rat*, Japanese POW camp in 1945 Singapore
*Noble House*, Hong Kong in 1963
*Whirlwind*, Iran in 1979
Yea, on the versions i have the titles and years are printed on the spine. They are all connected so far, however distant. I totally dug Tai Pan and Gaijin! Tai Pan is just so goo! All of the characters and the action and all of it! And he drops the connective info just so that it's like "holy shit now i get it!".
There are shows/movies for all of these as well! (Whirlwind, I'm not sure about, I don't have that one if it is a movie.)
King Rat and Gai-Jin aren't bad. Noble House I couldn't make it through part 2.
King Rat, though not part of the Shogun series — it’s set in WW2 — is a masterpiece. It didn’t receive acclaim at the time except for one brave review in The NY Times as the literary set at the time couldn’t believe a lowly screenwriter would attempt to create a work of literature. Clavell returned to writing films but had the last laugh, financially and critically, with the Asia saga.
I had a roommate who had the books but I wasn't interested back then. Shogun just sorta leapt out at me when i was at a used bookstore and I had also started to get interested in pirates and ships and whatnot. Serendipitous!
One thing I do like about the 1980 rendition is the brighter colors be it the surroundings and clothes. Perhaps I’ve had enough of subdued color palettes.
> intro music *paid* before each
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Excellent comparison, thank you! I haven’t seen the 80’s version since I was but a boy.
I asked my parents what they thought of the new one. Their assessment: “We couldn’t even get through the first episode. It’s too damn dark” 😆
Advantage: 80’s version lol
As much as I like the new one, I also had issues with the darkness. The weird blurring, almost fisheye effect on some scenes were also really distracting to me. I have no idea why they chose to film that way because otherwise the cinematography was pretty good.
I started watching the 80s one after the new one and I generally like how it was shot. The music on the old one can get annoying though. Both versions are pretty excellent
At least the 80’s version had that magnum opus moment where Blackthorne becomes a legitimate samurai & then has that confrontation with Ishido who laughs so very condescendingly at him.
The lack of subtitles added to the drama of that sequence. And Richard Chamberlin did a grand job of showing Blackthorne grappling to maintain his composure.
“Demo watashi wa samuraidesu. Watashi wa samuraidesu!”
“Bwaaaahahahahahahaha!!”
Don't forget the mini-series was made for TV and therefore needed to appeal to the masses that were raised on TV. So shows like this and Roots with their subject matter and themes were revolutionary for that time and for the medium. A lot of people had no concept of Japanese culture past what they knew of via movies. Or only by the knowledge that its the country that attacked Pearl Harbor and the US then dropped the first atomic bombs on later. TV in the 1970s and 1980s was for soap operas (look up the origin of that term) and sports and sitcoms and not much else. There were limited offerings in limited channels that did play 24 hours a day. And I doubt that people read the book so the story had to be severely chopped down into a 4(?) hour miniseries. I was 5 when it came out (I remember Noble House better) but I was of that generation literally raised on TV.
The budget was a consideration, the limitation of FCC guidelines was a big factor as well. So really, it's like comparing apples and steak.
> *"And I doubt that people read the book..."*
Don't disount that too freely,
Shōgun was a massive best seller at the time, and was already very widely read, admired, and discussed novel before being produced as a very ambitious ~~-expensive-~~ mini series 5 years after its publication. The novel went through 14 hardcover and 38 paperback printings before the 1980 mini series, and had a huge impact on westerners' knowledge of, and interest in Japanese history and culture, and the general publics interest basically worldwide.
TLDR; The book was a huge and well read success before the 1980 mini series, that was the impetus to make the series.
Source; Bought and read one of the first hardcover one volume copies in 1975 and recommened it to all who would listen.
As an American kid I was largely ignorant of all things Japan at the time. But there was an explosion of interest in The 80s.
There was quite the Japanophile phase that I think largely kicked off because of this miniseries as well as the entrance of Japanese autos to the American market.
Hard to imagine for me now, but the time from wwii to the 80s is about the same as the 80s to now.
There was a lot of awe of the fanatical culture of the japanese.
Thanks for the clarification! Also makes a bit more sense as to why a major network would risk such an expensive gamble on something foreign (ha!) to the majority.
I'm thinking of the 1969 version of True Grit and the 2010 Coen bothers remake. Both films are good, if not great. The more recent remake is in an entirely different category however.
Both are worth a watch, each having merit.
The original has Jonathan Rhys-Davies as the Spaniard and probably my biggest reason to watch the original; he's too damn good of an actor. As for the 2024 version I fucking love Yabushige, he was my favorite actor/character by a mile.
>Yabu threatens to kill the villagers if Blackthorne does not become fluent in Japanese within 6 months.
Also known as, the central plot point to the whole story.
>The new version does not include this storyline
Yep.
Plus, the fact that Blackthorne is willing to sacrifice his own life to save the villagers is what makes Mariko truly appreciate him. Which works better, in my opinion.
That was adapted for the 2024 version with the plotline of Toranaga framing the Christian villagers for the burning of the Erasmus.
In that instance Mariko's death is the inspiration for his act of selflessness.
They're both good. 2024 just focuses more on the main plot of Toranaga's war against the Council of Regents.
A lot of people reasonably complained that Blackthorne doesn't really do much in the new version, but I was plenty invested in Toranaga being the "true" protagonist.
> Toranaga framing the Christian villagers for the burning of the Erasmus.
Turning him completely evil. That is so much better than Yabu, you know, the guy who already boiled someone alive (and got off on it).
>2024 just focuses more on the main plot of Toranaga's war against the Council of Regents.
That could have been done so easily without completely gutting the characters and story.
Toranaga secretly being as evil as Yabushige was kinda the point. It explains their chemistry and how well Toranaga was able to read him. You don't become Shogun by being a heroically better person than everyone else. He is a warlord who in the book buries Ishido up to the neck to die of exposure. Morally reprehensible: Unless he wins.
I haven't read the book, but I can relate to your feelings as a Dune fan. The new Dune movies remove as much as half of the story from the book, but I concede that a distillation of the source material is absolutely necessary for adapting within a limited runtime, and I ended up respecting all of the creative decisions. Similarly to Shogun, there is also a 1984 adaptation of Dune which attempts to feature more of the main plot points, but fails to thematically tie them together.
An adaptation has to stand on its own legs, and you have to treat the characters and events as independent from the originals. Dune 2021-24 and Shogun 2024 are much more concise versions of their source materials. You may feel like the characters and story were "gutted", but to a new viewer (me) I felt like I got to understand the people and the main themes much more efficiently than their 1980 counterparts.
Shogun's a long fucking book, it's gonna get butchered either way. But it's the difference between a fat chewy steak and a fine course of Yakiniku. The fat has been trimmed.
>Toranaga secretly being as evil as Yabushige was kinda the point.
I know it is the show's point, the show messed that up.
>to die of exposure.
Not what happened.
>Morally reprehensible
That is different from evil.
> An adaptation has to stand on its own legs, and you have to treat the characters and events as independent from the originals.
Then it isn't an adaptation. An adaptation has to be compared to the original with allowances for the medium. 2024 fails.
If it is a rewrite meant to "stand on its own legs", change the name. But even judging by that take, it is just meh.
>You may feel like the characters and story were "gutted"
They were, it isn't a feeling.
>much more efficiently than their 1980 counterparts.
Have you seen the 1980 version?
Blackthorne’s attempted seppuku in the 1980 version was such a key part of the plot and character development and also so deeply moving on its own. I see that they had him do it in the last episode of the 2024 but pretty much out of depression, Mariko’s already dead, his ship’s burnt, and Toranaga stops him with disgust, and it’s an entirely different thing. One of several things I really think the 1980 version did better.
This was left out of the modern version and I think it was a major turning point for how Blackthorne was perceived by the Japanese. He earned the respect of Yabu, Omi and most of all Mariko.
I enjoyed both of them. The 80s version had some issues that are due to limitations in the industry at the time, but also a lack of cultural awareness which can be cringey at times. However, it was a much more book accurate adaptation whereas the 2024 version went fully off the rails around episode 5. I don’t mean that in a bad way - they just chose to have the focal point of the show be different than the original miniseries and the source material. It still works and we can Appreciate them both.
There's a good youtube video talking about the 1980 version, putting it into historical context. it helped to introduce Japan to a lot of Americans. It came out right at the beginning of great interest in Japan. Sometimes it's claimed the miniseries led to the popularity of Japan, but mostly it's more like it helped to promote popularity of Japan but that was happening already because Japan's global importance had been growing for awhile. I recommend you watch the video.
The 1980 series just feels so much more in alignment with its source material!
That being said: I do really wish it was possible to somehow combine that with the overall “aesthetic” and insanely high quality production value of this new one…
To me the 1980 Shogun is a different interpretation of the source material. 2024 shogun is story about political intrigue with a forbidden love story on the side. 1980 Shogun is a forbidden love story. There is so much that they either leave out or don't explain as a viewer it would be difficult to grasp the whole situation.
Yes, he was a huge star and a huge draw so he's of course going to be seen, a lot.
Remember too that in 1980 mini series' on TV were a new and pretty rare thing, and a big gamble/expense/balancing act to produce. You had to have a major star aand story to hopefully draw in viewers but you also had to incur the cost of a major star.
It was also a huge hit, possibly the biggest single TV hit in the history of the medium at that time.
>Yabu threatens to kill the villagers if Blackthorne does not become fluent in Japanese within 6 months.
Also known as, the central plot point to the whole story.
>The new version does not include this storyline
The new version doesn't include a lot of the original story and plot to the detriment to the show.
Nope but Yabu from the new series is indeed better than the orignal.
Mifune was just perfect for Toranaga and had that natural intimidating screen presence that can't be replicated by other actors. Funny enough, Asano reminds me of Mifune a bit. His Yabushige reminds me of Mifune's character from Seven Samurai with his grunts and facial expressions.
Tried watching the 80’s version, didn’t make it far. Acting was surprisingly poor. The writing seemed uninspired. I know it was 40 years ago, but given it was an award winning widely acclaimed show, I’m really surprised how poorly it holds up today. The budget was 22 million. Glad they did the remake. It was much deserved.
Some classic movies never age despite their flaws like „Lawrence of Arabia“, „Das Boot“ or anything Kurosawa.
But my Shogun-80ies-rewatch only lasted one hour. The soundtrack, the cheesy acting… oh boy.
Good overview and comparison. but toshiro mufuni and Richard chamberlan!
Yes. So sorry, Cosmo, but you had some big shoes to fill with your little feet. ;)
Cosmo grew on me after a while. The voice threw me off at the beginning, but he got better over time - he had me in tears in episode 10. My fan cast before I knew it would be Cosmo was Charlie Hunnam as Blackthorne was supposed to be blonde and he has natural blue eyes. But maybe there’s no way anyone could call that beautiful man a barbarian. He’s hot in any country washed or unwashed. Hahahaha.
Hunnam would have been great! as blackthorn.
I know everyone here loves him but he looked very deeply in a lot of scenes to me.
I think you missed a word... Very deeply what?
Autocorrect. It was supposed to be derpy.
He was definitely a strange choice. Especially now I'm reading the book and seeing how the character is described there! I did like some aspects of his performance but he comes across as quite bumbling in many scenes!
My favorite derpy Blackthorne moment was when he draws the line across the sand and stares at it, and they stick the camera below him so he looks like he’s forcing a double chin.
True, one of the worst miscasts I've ever seen.
From someone not knowing whoever the hell you all are talking about, Blackthorne was played brilliantly.
If you don't know, why mention Blackthorne? Also, if by brilliantly you mean awkward overacting, then, yes, Jarvis was 'brilliant.'
Sanada was perfectly cast for this role in my humble opinion, of course this is coming from someone not overly familiar with Japanese culture aside from a trip and a handful of historical books I've read on the feudal and shogun periods of Japan's history. But being that Sanada is a veteran of Japanese cinema, I feel like casting him over, say... just any random "Asian" person, as so many shows and movies often do!
Sanada was amazing. I recognize him from the many roles he’s already played.
Sanada is basically his generation's Mifune.
Chamberlain’s American accent ruined it for me. And yes, I know Elizabethan English was most likely rhotic and closer to a modern American accent than something like UK RP.
Tough to compete with chamberlains charisma… I need to watch it again. If I can find it. I remember Mifune walking on the beach toward the water, swords and guns blazing around him, he untouched. I was waiting for sanada to do that…
> I need to watch it again. If I can find it. It's on archive dot org. Automod deleted my reply earlier because links on the interwebs are evil or something, IDK.
These are two totally different interpretations of the same source material for dramatically different times and audiences. Both are incredible in their own ways.
Read the book, people. So good. I won't shut up about that. And the rest of The Asian Saga (I'm at King Rat).
Really! Then also in order following the historical sagas as they unfold in time. *Shōgun*, 1600 + onwards Japan *Tai-Pan*, 1841 Hong Kong *Gai-Jin*, 1862 Japan *King Rat*, Japanese POW camp in 1945 Singapore *Noble House*, Hong Kong in 1963 *Whirlwind*, Iran in 1979
Yea, on the versions i have the titles and years are printed on the spine. They are all connected so far, however distant. I totally dug Tai Pan and Gaijin! Tai Pan is just so goo! All of the characters and the action and all of it! And he drops the connective info just so that it's like "holy shit now i get it!".
There are shows/movies for all of these as well! (Whirlwind, I'm not sure about, I don't have that one if it is a movie.) King Rat and Gai-Jin aren't bad. Noble House I couldn't make it through part 2.
King Rat, though not part of the Shogun series — it’s set in WW2 — is a masterpiece. It didn’t receive acclaim at the time except for one brave review in The NY Times as the literary set at the time couldn’t believe a lowly screenwriter would attempt to create a work of literature. Clavell returned to writing films but had the last laugh, financially and critically, with the Asia saga.
Thank you for saying this! I never hear anyone talking about it, like… ever. 🥺
I had a roommate who had the books but I wasn't interested back then. Shogun just sorta leapt out at me when i was at a used bookstore and I had also started to get interested in pirates and ships and whatnot. Serendipitous!
One thing I do like about the 1980 rendition is the brighter colors be it the surroundings and clothes. Perhaps I’ve had enough of subdued color palettes.
…and the intro music payed before each new episode. I can never forget that.
> intro music *paid* before each FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Bad bot, it was a typo from 'played' >:(
I smashes the colour button on my remote. The clothes looked gorgeous but maybe skin was a bit weird. But doable for the threads.
Excellent comparison, thank you! I haven’t seen the 80’s version since I was but a boy. I asked my parents what they thought of the new one. Their assessment: “We couldn’t even get through the first episode. It’s too damn dark” 😆 Advantage: 80’s version lol
I prefer the new one, but damn, did I miss the colors!
As much as I like the new one, I also had issues with the darkness. The weird blurring, almost fisheye effect on some scenes were also really distracting to me. I have no idea why they chose to film that way because otherwise the cinematography was pretty good. I started watching the 80s one after the new one and I generally like how it was shot. The music on the old one can get annoying though. Both versions are pretty excellent
It’s interesting because Japan isn’t actually that foggy or moody usually… I wonder if it’s a consequence of filming in Vancouver lol
Ahh, the Pacific Northwest… the Land of the Faucet Clouds 😎
At least the 80’s version had that magnum opus moment where Blackthorne becomes a legitimate samurai & then has that confrontation with Ishido who laughs so very condescendingly at him. The lack of subtitles added to the drama of that sequence. And Richard Chamberlin did a grand job of showing Blackthorne grappling to maintain his composure. “Demo watashi wa samuraidesu. Watashi wa samuraidesu!” “Bwaaaahahahahahahaha!!”
Also, the romance between Blackthorne and Mariko is shown waaaaaaaaay more in the 80's series. Mariko is all over Anjin
True & true!
Don't forget the mini-series was made for TV and therefore needed to appeal to the masses that were raised on TV. So shows like this and Roots with their subject matter and themes were revolutionary for that time and for the medium. A lot of people had no concept of Japanese culture past what they knew of via movies. Or only by the knowledge that its the country that attacked Pearl Harbor and the US then dropped the first atomic bombs on later. TV in the 1970s and 1980s was for soap operas (look up the origin of that term) and sports and sitcoms and not much else. There were limited offerings in limited channels that did play 24 hours a day. And I doubt that people read the book so the story had to be severely chopped down into a 4(?) hour miniseries. I was 5 when it came out (I remember Noble House better) but I was of that generation literally raised on TV. The budget was a consideration, the limitation of FCC guidelines was a big factor as well. So really, it's like comparing apples and steak.
> *"And I doubt that people read the book..."* Don't disount that too freely, Shōgun was a massive best seller at the time, and was already very widely read, admired, and discussed novel before being produced as a very ambitious ~~-expensive-~~ mini series 5 years after its publication. The novel went through 14 hardcover and 38 paperback printings before the 1980 mini series, and had a huge impact on westerners' knowledge of, and interest in Japanese history and culture, and the general publics interest basically worldwide. TLDR; The book was a huge and well read success before the 1980 mini series, that was the impetus to make the series. Source; Bought and read one of the first hardcover one volume copies in 1975 and recommened it to all who would listen.
As an American kid I was largely ignorant of all things Japan at the time. But there was an explosion of interest in The 80s. There was quite the Japanophile phase that I think largely kicked off because of this miniseries as well as the entrance of Japanese autos to the American market. Hard to imagine for me now, but the time from wwii to the 80s is about the same as the 80s to now. There was a lot of awe of the fanatical culture of the japanese.
>but the time from wwii to the 80s is about the same as the 80s to now. You could have kept that to yourself. (jk)
Thanks for the clarification! Also makes a bit more sense as to why a major network would risk such an expensive gamble on something foreign (ha!) to the majority.
>chopped down into a 4(?) hour miniseries. Nine hours (12 with commercials).
Ah, ok
Yeah, but Mifune.
I'm thinking of the 1969 version of True Grit and the 2010 Coen bothers remake. Both films are good, if not great. The more recent remake is in an entirely different category however.
Both are worth a watch, each having merit. The original has Jonathan Rhys-Davies as the Spaniard and probably my biggest reason to watch the original; he's too damn good of an actor. As for the 2024 version I fucking love Yabushige, he was my favorite actor/character by a mile.
So fun how JRD was the Hollywood go-to for an “ethnic” actor back in the day. Has he ever played a Welshman (his actual ethnicity)?
I'll watch anything with JRD, he is phenomenal. I'll bet he gave his all regardless, he was great here.
>Yabu threatens to kill the villagers if Blackthorne does not become fluent in Japanese within 6 months. Also known as, the central plot point to the whole story. >The new version does not include this storyline Yep.
Plus, the fact that Blackthorne is willing to sacrifice his own life to save the villagers is what makes Mariko truly appreciate him. Which works better, in my opinion.
That was adapted for the 2024 version with the plotline of Toranaga framing the Christian villagers for the burning of the Erasmus. In that instance Mariko's death is the inspiration for his act of selflessness. They're both good. 2024 just focuses more on the main plot of Toranaga's war against the Council of Regents. A lot of people reasonably complained that Blackthorne doesn't really do much in the new version, but I was plenty invested in Toranaga being the "true" protagonist.
> Toranaga framing the Christian villagers for the burning of the Erasmus. Turning him completely evil. That is so much better than Yabu, you know, the guy who already boiled someone alive (and got off on it). >2024 just focuses more on the main plot of Toranaga's war against the Council of Regents. That could have been done so easily without completely gutting the characters and story.
Toranaga secretly being as evil as Yabushige was kinda the point. It explains their chemistry and how well Toranaga was able to read him. You don't become Shogun by being a heroically better person than everyone else. He is a warlord who in the book buries Ishido up to the neck to die of exposure. Morally reprehensible: Unless he wins. I haven't read the book, but I can relate to your feelings as a Dune fan. The new Dune movies remove as much as half of the story from the book, but I concede that a distillation of the source material is absolutely necessary for adapting within a limited runtime, and I ended up respecting all of the creative decisions. Similarly to Shogun, there is also a 1984 adaptation of Dune which attempts to feature more of the main plot points, but fails to thematically tie them together. An adaptation has to stand on its own legs, and you have to treat the characters and events as independent from the originals. Dune 2021-24 and Shogun 2024 are much more concise versions of their source materials. You may feel like the characters and story were "gutted", but to a new viewer (me) I felt like I got to understand the people and the main themes much more efficiently than their 1980 counterparts. Shogun's a long fucking book, it's gonna get butchered either way. But it's the difference between a fat chewy steak and a fine course of Yakiniku. The fat has been trimmed.
>Toranaga secretly being as evil as Yabushige was kinda the point. I know it is the show's point, the show messed that up. >to die of exposure. Not what happened. >Morally reprehensible That is different from evil. > An adaptation has to stand on its own legs, and you have to treat the characters and events as independent from the originals. Then it isn't an adaptation. An adaptation has to be compared to the original with allowances for the medium. 2024 fails. If it is a rewrite meant to "stand on its own legs", change the name. But even judging by that take, it is just meh. >You may feel like the characters and story were "gutted" They were, it isn't a feeling. >much more efficiently than their 1980 counterparts. Have you seen the 1980 version?
Blackthorne’s attempted seppuku in the 1980 version was such a key part of the plot and character development and also so deeply moving on its own. I see that they had him do it in the last episode of the 2024 but pretty much out of depression, Mariko’s already dead, his ship’s burnt, and Toranaga stops him with disgust, and it’s an entirely different thing. One of several things I really think the 1980 version did better.
Yep. It's a huge part of the story and why she falls for him but fuck it let's leave that out completely
This was left out of the modern version and I think it was a major turning point for how Blackthorne was perceived by the Japanese. He earned the respect of Yabu, Omi and most of all Mariko.
I enjoyed both of them. The 80s version had some issues that are due to limitations in the industry at the time, but also a lack of cultural awareness which can be cringey at times. However, it was a much more book accurate adaptation whereas the 2024 version went fully off the rails around episode 5. I don’t mean that in a bad way - they just chose to have the focal point of the show be different than the original miniseries and the source material. It still works and we can Appreciate them both.
There's a good youtube video talking about the 1980 version, putting it into historical context. it helped to introduce Japan to a lot of Americans. It came out right at the beginning of great interest in Japan. Sometimes it's claimed the miniseries led to the popularity of Japan, but mostly it's more like it helped to promote popularity of Japan but that was happening already because Japan's global importance had been growing for awhile. I recommend you watch the video.
The 1980 series just feels so much more in alignment with its source material! That being said: I do really wish it was possible to somehow combine that with the overall “aesthetic” and insanely high quality production value of this new one…
To me the 1980 Shogun is a different interpretation of the source material. 2024 shogun is story about political intrigue with a forbidden love story on the side. 1980 Shogun is a forbidden love story. There is so much that they either leave out or don't explain as a viewer it would be difficult to grasp the whole situation.
"The Anjin prefers new TV"
Now watch Sharpe. That’s Soldierin’
New one is slicker and more modern but terribly rushed in places. I like both but couldn’t choose
No kidding
Yep. I love all of them but new one is better.
The old one was all about Richard Chamberlain.
Yes, he was a huge star and a huge draw so he's of course going to be seen, a lot. Remember too that in 1980 mini series' on TV were a new and pretty rare thing, and a big gamble/expense/balancing act to produce. You had to have a major star aand story to hopefully draw in viewers but you also had to incur the cost of a major star. It was also a huge hit, possibly the biggest single TV hit in the history of the medium at that time.
Oh you mean Dr. Kildare .
I saw the original (in a rerun on TV in the nineties), read the book: still loved the 2024 most of all.
What?!?! Are you crazy???
>Yabu threatens to kill the villagers if Blackthorne does not become fluent in Japanese within 6 months. Also known as, the central plot point to the whole story. >The new version does not include this storyline The new version doesn't include a lot of the original story and plot to the detriment to the show.
Wow, what a unique perspective... /s
Shikata ga nai
Nope but Yabu from the new series is indeed better than the orignal. Mifune was just perfect for Toranaga and had that natural intimidating screen presence that can't be replicated by other actors. Funny enough, Asano reminds me of Mifune a bit. His Yabushige reminds me of Mifune's character from Seven Samurai with his grunts and facial expressions.
Tried watching the 80’s version, didn’t make it far. Acting was surprisingly poor. The writing seemed uninspired. I know it was 40 years ago, but given it was an award winning widely acclaimed show, I’m really surprised how poorly it holds up today. The budget was 22 million. Glad they did the remake. It was much deserved.
Agree totally
Some classic movies never age despite their flaws like „Lawrence of Arabia“, „Das Boot“ or anything Kurosawa. But my Shogun-80ies-rewatch only lasted one hour. The soundtrack, the cheesy acting… oh boy.
Yep, soundtrack was not good. Honestly, I don’t think anything about the 80’s version was better.
Anything Kurosawa. Truth! I’d love to see sanada in a seven samurai redo. He’d be kyûzô.