Shogun - FX on Hulu

Book related question on the show, so spoilers if you haven't read, or if you haven't read I suppose you won't be able to answer. Anyway, enough rambling.

was his army wiped out as well as part of the village?

In his defence his character regardless of mannerisms is carrying his part of the story decently enough.

Not to go too far off topic , but i read the first two and enjoyed. Big time investments mind, but time well spent. Are there any of the others that you would recommend in particular?

Noble House was adapted for TV in the 1980s with Pierce Brosnan in the lead.

I can't remember either! But it looks like 1980s mini-series retro-heaven... John Rhys Davies, Tia Carrere in supporting roles.

I'll leave it there and return the thread to Shogun now :)

(it's easy tell Clavell is one of my all-time favourite authors, eh?) 😂

Apologies is answered already but when I google everything says that Shogun is being steamed on Disney+ in Ireland since the end of February but I do not see it there. Where are you all watching it?

Disney

This is what I get and I am in Ireland.

That scene in the Willow House was incredibly charged, without any actual sex or nudity. I love the subtlety of the acting from so many of the actors. Great show.

Imperial court intrigue tends to have all the strategic shenanigans of modern spy thrillers and business back-stabbing, and Shogun is a great example of this. Three episodes in and its all there, with the added complexity of an alien barbaric civilization being used as a monetary conduit resource, as well as the means to play one group off against another. Just like any corporate environment. Ideas (especially ones like religion) can be dangerous in any society, but especially so when manifested in a wily character such as Blackthorne, who is the pawn in the potentially dangerous strategy of Toranaga.

Cosmo Jarvis' speech mannerisms are slightly off-putting - previous posters have mentioned the likes of it as Tom Hardy knock-off, and others. I'd throw in Marlon Brando attempts, but also as non-actor channeling - in that of Winston Churchill, with the 'all japes and high jinks' attitude of Eton chums.

The first bout of solid action, when it finally came approaching the end of episode 3, was all in the dark, and might as well have been just audio.

Great stuff all-in-all so far though.

it’s a thing that you hang birds for a few days to allow the meat to tenderise and, I think, lose some of the game taste. I’m guessing though this would have been done in a cool, dry place in England. I’m guessing the bird may have started to decompose more rapidly in what looks like a hot, humid climate and he hadn’t accounted for that. He might have expected it to smell and draw flies anyway. It’s just that it seemed more horrific to the Japanese. I was left wondering did it start to decompose more quickly because if the climate or are we actually looking at the world through the lense of a Japanese eye, so therefore the birds condition was made to look worse than maybe it was.

They're mad into the aul death

I also recall from the book that Blackthorn completely forgot about the pheasant being there. Toranaga has thrown him into full-time training the samurai division with weapons and intense language training. He is physically and mentally exhausted and basically just comes home for sleep. Nobody even has the opportunity to politely hint to him that the bird might be a bit on the ripe side.

The Willow House politics and motivations are a lot easier to explain in the book. So I agree that the show is doing a good job - but Kiku is a much deeper and more complicated character in the book.

Fuji is my favourite "rediscovered" character in the show, I'd forgotten a lot about her.

I was on board with many of the changes up to this point from the book. It's not perfect but it's been generally excellent. The last episode, however, they really did take a different route. It's going to change things a lot, and it also potentially ruins one of the scenes I was looking forward to so much (which should be in next episode).

"I am liege lord here."

I don't understand why they went beefcake for a time when they were no beefcakes

yeah. There’s been much suggestion of a battle but nothing has materialised. It’sa great show and I’m up to last weeks episode but I found myself wondering was I in some kind of rut because we had to be running out of episodes and the conclusion seemed as distant as ever.

the latest episode was great! It completely turned the series around for me. I thought it was starting to lag and maybe Judy draw out events but I can’t wait for the next episode now.

All the above aside, I am still glad that this was made.

Same. It's very much taken it's own course in the last two episodes, which is a pity, but given my other hotly anticipated adaptations of books lately were the Wheel of Time and the Witcher, I'm very pleasantly surprised overall that this one stuck to the story at least as much as it did.

Well that was just…amazing