My God. This episode is one of the most powerful episodes of any series to date. This was more minor but Spoiler Blackthorn‘s sudden cultural collision of who he now is contrasted to who he was, via the overwhelming stench of his old shipmates was well done. More time was spent on it in the book, but this was well done.
Literally. A man‘s man, a great warrior, left crying by himself. She paid him respect for his tea “performance“ and got his hopes up. Then her tongue emasculated him.
Spoiler The show not touching on this was starting to bother me. Wish they'd shown more of his transformation like the book, but was still very happy with that scene
Outrageously good, the tension and layers on top of every word that came out of Mariko’s mouth. Wildly good episode
I would put in on top 10 list of best TV episodes of all time. No clue what else is on there but I truly felt it was special
It’s hard to say anyone other than Toranaga or Mariko is my favorite… but damn if I don’t love every single Yabushige moment. Lovable little shit
Heart breaking that’s how Mariko went out. I wish she would have been allowed to commit seppoku. That actor who played her should win many awards. She was incredible.
That scene where Anjin asks Mariko to live for him I thought of a tweet I saw earlier today on IG where a girl said “no matter where you are or what is happening to you or what you’re going through, there is always a guy there trying to fuck you.” Lmaooooo
Toranaga is way too smart to not realize Yabushige would turn on him. So I'm assuming Toranaga's master plan incorporates and anticipates Yabushige's treachery and somehow uses it to reach Toranaga's final result. Also Yabushige is going to get got in a miserable and fitting way. I guess it was just fate, destiny, and apropos that Mariko went out in the manner that she did. But couldn't they have found an ending that made her realize that life is worth living and thus she lived on? It's just so sad that she had to die and I understand it but I hate it.
Why couldn't they have made this show into 4 seasons or something? Is it because it takes so long to film it and it's so expensive? When they see how successful it was , capitalism means they will find a way to make more episodes.
FWIW - it's called The Asian series. Ive only read Shogun, but my understanding is they're not all that connected. The '2nd book' is about the opium wars in the 1800s, another about WW2, I think one of them comes back the Edo period that deals with some descendants of the characters in Shogun. But it's not really a serialized story from what I gather. They could go beyond the book if they wanted more seasons, but they'd be making up all the story lines instead of using the novels. But also, the novel tracks along pretty closely with japanese history so they could use that too.
Also I think this was in production for years. Would think turn around on a 2nd season wouldnt come fast at all. Probably another several years.
best hour of television that I can possibly remember AND that's with the show creators eliminating about 75 pages of material from the book. Instead of a quick trip by boat to Osaka, in the book Anjin and Mariko travel by road to Osaka, it takes weeks and Mariko drops her guard, their relationship is almost completely out in the open, they spend every night together and before they leave Blackthorne has Toranaga's promise that he will allow Mariko a divorce if he somehow beats the regents so her sacrifice is a massive kick in the nuts if you were on team Blackthorne/Mariko
Tai-Pan and King Rat were both excellent novels by Clavell. King Rat is the WW2 book. Tai-Pan was set early Hong Kong.
I recommend you read Tai-Pan first. The cultural issues of Europeans trading in Pacific Asia make for a nice transition from Shogun.
I was looking at that one. If you like the novels set during the Opium Wars - the Ibis Trilogy is a good one.
Spoiler: Spoiler That’s was so predictable I now think he’s part of the plan. Meaning toranaga knew that if Mariko wasn’t killed or committed suicide that yabushige should set the next plan in motion which I believe yabushige was in on (even though he went to mariko and played dumb about asking her what toranagas intentions were)
Or maybe I’m just hoping for that because I like his character (unless he really did fuck everyone over in which case fuck him)
Wow I hadn't even considered that. I guess you have to ask yourself how would that all work out? If Yabushige triggered the ambush how does that help Toranaga? It could be because the word of that gets out and everyone realizes Ishido is a POS and revolt against him? There are some archaic courtesan rules at play here that defy logic so I think that could be imbedded into Toranga's plan.