Shogun on FX

aurik · KF Sempai

I've really enjoyed the show so far. There are significant differences from the previous miniseries and the book, but they make the story interesting in different ways. I was discussing this with my manager in our 1:1 meeting yesterday, and we both commented that in this series, the character of John Blackthorn is the real selfish jerk, which is quite a bit of a departure from both the book and the movie. And the romance between Blackthorn and Mariko was consummated in a very different way. And Hiromatsu's story ended very differently.

One thing I've noticed is that even though I have been studying Japanese (on my own time here and there), I'm having an extremely hard time following the dialog without the subtitles. We mentioned that after Karate the other night, and my Sensei told us that his wife is having a really hard time following it too, and she's been getting Japanese tutoring for the past 2 years. It turns out that the reason for that is because apparently the Japanese dialect is what would have been spoken in the late 1600's, much like what we read in a Shakespearean play is the English from the 1600's.

I told my wife this interesting factoid, and she asked me, "Well, how do the actors handle it" -- my answer, "Well, most of the Japanese actors are native Japanese speakers. Speaking 1600's era Japanese is no different than us speaking Shakespeare's English. A little effort for a native speaker, but really hard for someone new to the language".
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sensei8 · KF Sensei

Excellent points, Ken!!

At first, in episode One, they ALL spoke in English, ahem, excuse me, (Portugues). However, the Japanese would not speak English in mixed company, if my memory serves me right.

Then came episode Two, where I had to read the translations, which I hate to do because I want to watch the show and not read the show. where ALL Japanese spoke Japanese and nothing else, even amongst themselves, whereas the non-Japanese spoke English to one another.... unless they were speaking directly to a Japanese.

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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

It appears that you can choose to watch an English dub of the show. I haven't been doing that, though.

I think I may have to find the book. I watched the first season, and I was really enjoying it, until the last few episodes. I just didn't like what happened (I won't spoil at this time). I'm willing to give season 2 a shot, but I won't be as excited for it.
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aurik · KF Sempai

Thats the thing. The miniseries ends exactly where the book ends. The stuff that Toranaga tells Yabu at the end of the show, about Selkigihara and the Anjin and his own future… that was exactly where the book ended. There is certainly room for the show runners to write a second season, but it wouldn’t be based on the book at all. Another option would be for them to write a miniseries based on one of the other books in Clavell’s Asian Saga.
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

Ok, then I'm confused. Does the book end before Noranaga becoming Shogun? Are there sequential books with the same characters?
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aurik · KF Sempai

The book is about the path he took to set up the rise to Shogun, but it doesn't actually cover the war/conflict or his ascention to Shogun, or what happened during his reign. The other books in the Asian Saga are snapshots of different points in time with regard to Anglo/Japanese relations. The next book (in chronological order) is Tai-Pan, which is set in the mid-1800's. It centers around the opium trade and the establishment of the Hong Kong colony.
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Shuri-Ryu 1996-1997 - Gokyu
Judo 1996-1997 - Yonkyu
Uechi-Ryu 2018-Present - Nidan
ABS Bladesmith 2021-Present - Apprentice

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