Alvaro Onieva
Updated Friday, March 1, 2024-21:43
The term
shogun
, which would literally be translated as
"great general appeaser of the barbarians"
, refers to a position appointed by the emperor of Japan and which designated the general of the army, although he not only held military power but was also the practice who ruled the country.
We go back to the year 1600 with
Shogun
, a series produced by the prestigious North American channel FX, which premiered on Disney+ on February 27.
It tells of the legend of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first
shogun
of Japan and considered the main unifier of the country.
Blood, betrayal, politics, dishonor and greed are some of the promises established in this epic story, based on the
bestseller
by James Clavell.
Justin Marks, screenwriter of
Top Gun: Maverick
and creator of
Counterpart
, a formidable
science fiction
thriller with JK Simmons as the protagonist,
is in charge of taking on the challenge of telling this hectic historical moment in the form of a civil war.
The narrative begins when a mysterious European ship is found abandoned near a fishing village.
At the controls is an Englishman,
John Blackthorne
(Cosmo Jarvis), a man who harbors secrets that could help
Toranaga
tip the balance of power in his favor.
Between them is Blackthorne's translator, Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a Christian noblewoman haunted by dishonor.
Along with the leading trio, FX is betting on a cast of renowned Japanese actors
- something unusual for a high-budget North American production, but logical for the story it tells - that includes Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige, a close ally of Toranaga, Yuki Kura who He plays the shgun's son, Yoshii Nagakado, or Mariko's jealous husband, Buntaro, played by Shinnosuke Abe.
Exhausting challenge
In view of the spectacular trailer for
Shogun
, released a few months ago, this became one of the most anticipated series of the year.
However, his path to the screen was not easy.
Announced in 2018, the series began production with a different team and filming, which began in March 2019,
was stopped a few days later because the FX network considered that it was not achieving the desired quality standards
.
Ronan Bennett (
Top Boy
) took a step back as screenwriter and the project was put in the hands of Marks, as well as his wife and producer Rachel Kondo.
But until the cameras rolled again, the couple would go through a complicated process.
Initially they did not see the point in telling this story, as they believed that this approach of a white hero in the middle of an Asian historical moment had already been told in many series and films, such as
Edward Zwick's
The Last Samurai .
The success of the previous adaptation and, of course, that of the novel itself also weighed.
A year of work bore fruit and the writing moved on to an endless shoot that lasted ten months
.
Those involved define it as exhausting and a colossal challenge.
Personally, Marks and Kondo also added the handicap of becoming double parents at this time.
All that effort could be worth it if, with its premiere, the series materializes into what it promises: an epic story for an adult audience at the level of Game of Thrones or a vibrant historical story like Vikings.
Also a project that returns FX to the place of relevance that titles such as Fargo
,
Feud
or
American Crime Story
have given it in the past .