Shogun review: Awesome to look at but overstuffed, Japanese historical epic is a grounded alternative to Game of Thrones

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Played by Cosmo Jarvis like a cross between Ozzy Osborne and that man from the viral Democracy Manifest meme, Blackthorne washes up on the shores of a Japan on the brink of civil war. He’s the first Brit to set foot on Japan, a territory kept secret from the West by the Portuguese who first discovered it. Blackthorne finds that the Japanese are in the middle of some sort of game of thrones, with several warring factions vying to fill the power vacuum left by the previous ‘daimyo’. Chief among them — or, at least, the man we spend the most time with — is Lord Yoshii Toranaga, played by the legendary Hiroyuki Sanada as pretty much the parallel protagonist. Hovering around Toranaga is another ‘daimyo’, Kashigi Yabushige, played by Tadanobu Asano, and Anna Sawai’s Toda Mariko, the young wife of a samurai, destined to become something of a feminist icon.

Toranaga is quick to realise that Blackthorne might be the perfect pawn in his efforts to protect himself against mounting pressure from his rivals. It’s common knowledge that Toranaga’s growing influence has isolated him from the other ‘daimyos’. He summons Blackthorne, then a prisoner in Yabushige’s territory, to meet with him in Osaka. And after a couple of adventures — Blackthorne proves himself to be a worthy soldier — Toranaga develops a trust for his new plaything, eventually elevating him to the position of samurai.

Shogun begins interestingly enough — the visuals are extraordinary and the world-building detailed — but the show loses its grip only a couple of episodes in. There could be many reasons for this, but primarily, it’s the sheer number of characters that that becomes overwhelming. Not all of them have important roles, but they’re often introduced as if they might. Their job is to essentially deliver exposition, bark commands, or express emotion on somebody else’s behalf. But perhaps because of the show’s dedication to not short-changing any Japanese character — we’re often made privy to their private conversations about the white outsider — these tertiary elements are given far too much prominence than they ideally would have.

Meanwhile, your conditioning as a viewer of Western storytelling means that you’re automatically drawn towards Blackthorne, not in the least because Shogun itself appears to circle back to him periodically. We enter this world through his perspective, like a parrot perched on his shoulder. And for all the ‘barbarian’ talk — he’s perceived as little more than vermin initially — the Japanese point-of-view always feels secondary. Shogun isn’t the perspective-shift that it could have been, it’s merely a perspective dilution. For instance, when Blackthorne communicates, in the crudest manner possible, that Catholicism isn’t the only form of Christianity, we enter the scene from his point-of-view, and not of the Japanese who’ve just had their minds blown.

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There could be a minor overlap here with Martin Scorsese’s Silence. And certainly, a lot of the show’s visual language appears to have been inspired not only by old Japanese films, but also by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s work on Scorsese’s lost masterpiece. But unlike that movie, which mainly dealt with the psychological turmoil of an overzealous missionary, Shogun is a more outwardly ambitious project. It features many battles both big and small, and certainly, no expense has been spared in the fine costumes and lavishly mounted sets. But with no emotional anchor, watching it is like being unmoored at sea.

Shogun
Creators – Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks
Cast – Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Tadanobu Asano, Anna Sawai
Rating – 2.5/5