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19 pointspaulpauper5 comments

A nitpick, maybe, but one thing that bothered me about Shōgun was that it wasn't filmed in Asia. The landscape, plant life, and climate was all wrong. All that effort spent on authenticity, and it was filmed in front of an inauthentic backdrop.

Plus I live in the Pacific NW, which is where most of Shōgun was filmed, so seeing my "backyard" tended to pull me out of the fantasy.

They originally intended to shoot in Japan but couldn’t because of Covid. I thought the foliage and coastline were reasonably close to parts of Japan’s (I’ve been both there and to the Pacific NW).

I experienced what you’re describing when Power of the Dog tried to pass New Zealand off as Montana though.

> Clavell’s novel was originally made into a miniseries in 1980, one that went on to earn three Golden Globes, three Emmys, and another 11 Emmy nominations. This new Shogun had big sandals to fill, which it did — and then some.

Not to this viewer, it didn't :)

Re-read the book several times over the years and watched the original TV series (which was produced by Clavell himself, BTW), I was looking forward to enjoying the new show, but stopped watching after 4-5 episodes. To me it feels too one-dimensional and grim, even despite the subject matter. The original had more charismatic characters and was more about culture than gore and action.

> The original had more charismatic characters and was more about culture than gore and action.

I get the feeling we didn't watch the same show. The clash of culture was a core theme for the new show. It meditated on the differences in every episode.

I feel like the new show covered lots of cultural ground, and would have risked bogging down if it went any deeper. Although I do think there has been an undercurrent of fascination with Japanese culture in the West for some decades now, so for some people many of the insights in Shōgun could have felt less impactful due to familiarity.

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