Well, after telling everyone how great the 1980 Shogun miniseries is, I watched the first two episodes of this new adaptation of the 1975 novel by James Clavell. And it’s real good. Maybe the best show I’ve seen in years. Spoilers ahead, not only for the first two episodes, but for the whole series.
I agree with your feelings and assessment of this adaptation. I as well expect ed the new piece to not be as good as the beloved,by me, first adaptation or the book. I was enthralled, captivated and delighted by the attention to detail of custom and design .I watched the making of the series that documented the attention to detail of customs, right down to gestures and the way the Japanese samurai walked and moved. It paid off. Also the quality of the actors is top notch. Excited to see the rest of the series.
This show was not on my radar at all. We’ve got D+ for the kiddo though so I’ll give this one a shot this weekend and if we like it, follow along with your recaps!
"Rather, the translation happens through Father Alvito, a Portuguese Jesuit. The editing of this scene is great. We begin with full translations and we see that Alvito, despite Blackthorne’s mistrust, is translating faithfully, but gradually shift to Toranaga speaking directly to Blackthorne, each in their own language, with the audience simply understanding that the translation is happening in between."
I wanted to say that I love this scene.
For one thing, I really like how this series has found a nice compromise between 'anglicizing' (in this case I mean having the actors speak English for Portuguese) and showing the original Japanese with subtitles. I tend to hate it when a show or movie has an international cast and is set in another country only to never let anyone speak their native language and instead has all the dialogue 'anglicized' (Eg. Sense 8).
But also, I love how the power dynamics shift several times in the same sequence. Father Alvito, as far as I can tell, was definitely planning to del-ly mistranslate Blackthorne but changed his tune when he saw that Mariko was there. Like, he realized she would expose him if he were untruthful and that would break Toranaga's trust in him for certain.
Then Ishido enters and Toranaga is forced to go against his own interests. It's so good.
Yeah, it's such a great scene. In the 1980 version, Blackstone is more antagonistic to the priest and so Toranaga replaces him with Mariko. But that series also has no subtitles for the Japanese, so we don't know if Father Alvito was translating accurately or not.
I agree with your feelings and assessment of this adaptation. I as well expect ed the new piece to not be as good as the beloved,by me, first adaptation or the book. I was enthralled, captivated and delighted by the attention to detail of custom and design .I watched the making of the series that documented the attention to detail of customs, right down to gestures and the way the Japanese samurai walked and moved. It paid off. Also the quality of the actors is top notch. Excited to see the rest of the series.
This show was not on my radar at all. We’ve got D+ for the kiddo though so I’ll give this one a shot this weekend and if we like it, follow along with your recaps!
Hope you dog it!
"Rather, the translation happens through Father Alvito, a Portuguese Jesuit. The editing of this scene is great. We begin with full translations and we see that Alvito, despite Blackthorne’s mistrust, is translating faithfully, but gradually shift to Toranaga speaking directly to Blackthorne, each in their own language, with the audience simply understanding that the translation is happening in between."
I wanted to say that I love this scene.
For one thing, I really like how this series has found a nice compromise between 'anglicizing' (in this case I mean having the actors speak English for Portuguese) and showing the original Japanese with subtitles. I tend to hate it when a show or movie has an international cast and is set in another country only to never let anyone speak their native language and instead has all the dialogue 'anglicized' (Eg. Sense 8).
But also, I love how the power dynamics shift several times in the same sequence. Father Alvito, as far as I can tell, was definitely planning to del-ly mistranslate Blackthorne but changed his tune when he saw that Mariko was there. Like, he realized she would expose him if he were untruthful and that would break Toranaga's trust in him for certain.
Then Ishido enters and Toranaga is forced to go against his own interests. It's so good.
Yeah, it's such a great scene. In the 1980 version, Blackstone is more antagonistic to the priest and so Toranaga replaces him with Mariko. But that series also has no subtitles for the Japanese, so we don't know if Father Alvito was translating accurately or not.