Shogun on FX

Cafe Society
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81

In the book, it is indeed transformative for Blackthorne. A crevice opens up, Toranaga falls in, is rescued by Blackthorne, and then Mariko falls in and Toranaga helps Blackthorne rescue her as the crevice starts to close. Afterward all that is left of the crevice is a ditch that both Toranaga and Blackthorne end up peeing in as a way to say fuck off to the earthquake.. I really liked how they did something similar in the series with the ending scenes with the rock in his garden showing him begin to understand the Japanese way of thinking as well as Fuji gaining a level of understanding and connection to Blackthorne.

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82

They’re not capturing that at all, and really, IMHO, aren’t getting Toranaga correctly. It’s one of my few complaints.

The challenge was always going to be that Clavell uses so much internal dialogue to tell you how people feel, but this was an own goal because it’s a chance to physically show something.

83

IMFDB says they’re all flintlocks, and you’re indeed correct that that’s too advanced for the time period. A matchlock would make the most sense but it’s an understandable stylistic choice to not have a match in the scene.

84

1630 - The first true flintlock.To expose or protect the powder, the lid had to be moved manually. The flintlock mechanism was designed to push back the lid and spark a flint at the same time. The flintlock ignition system reigned for two centuries, with virtually no alteration.

Gun Timeline | History Detectives | PBS.

They said Shogun starts in 1600, so the dates are not that far off. A bit too early, but not crazy bad.

85

Episode 6 dropped.

Significant spoilers about the book, and likely the show, here.

  1. The scene with Blackthorne, Mariko and Kiku in the Tea House is very, very different in tone from the book.

In the book, the scene is of people being happy and relaxed, for the most part, with the undertone of the attraction between Blackthorne and Mariko that Kiku can see plain as day. They laugh and have fun; Kiku shows Blackthorne sex toys, which he’s embarrassed by but he tried his best to be Japanese. Kiku and Mariko bond and enjoy each other’s company.

The book presents Kiku as being genuinely tremendous at her job, a woman of talent and boundless charisma; she plays a samisen for Blackthorne, does mime for comedy, the works. You don’t get all of that here.

That said, the way this scene was shot was real cinema. The bit with Kiku sitting behind Mariko and speaking but really speaking for Mariko was clever as hell, and the monologue was poignant, beautifully written, and delivered flawlessly by Yuuka Kouri and Anna Sawai. That’s filmmaking.

We are getting a lot more of Mariko and her backstory, which… I’m not sure how I feel about that. The book gives you most of that at the end and it’s a reveal as you find out she was plotting a dreadful revenge all along.

  1. In the book, Blackthorne by this point is speaking rudimentary Japanese. He needs help, but he keeps trying. He still isn’t in the show.

The book has a critical scene we maybe won’t get; in an effort to ensure Blackthorne learns Japanese, Yabu tells the entire village of Anjiro they need to teach him in six months and if they don’t he’ll crucify the entire village. Blackthorne, horrified, demands the order be lifted or he’ll kill himself. As he prepares to do so, Yabu, Igurashi and Omi debate in Japanese what to do. Igurashi advises refusal, saying Blackthorne is bluffing. Omi advising the order be lifted and doing so by explaining the problem very intelligently, that Yabu will lose if Blackthorne kills himself, but will also lose if he doesn’t (read the book for more details.) Yabu refuses to lift the order, Blackthorne DOES try to commit suicide, but Omi stops him. It changes Blackthorne.

  1. We don’t get an Ochiba-Mariko backstory in the book.

  2. Anna Sawai is REALLY good in this show, though the character is colder and angrier than the one in the book. Still, I have to point out it doesn’t fit the story that she is blindingly beautiful, more so than Kiku.

  3. I liked seeing a Noh performance. That’s not in the book. That was cool.

86

Damn. That’s a pretty important scene! I’d sure like to see it. This version doesn’t put Blackthorne’s growth at center stage like the 1980 version did.

I had a hard time with the flashbacks in this episode. I often wasn’t sure what era we were in.

The scene with Kiku and Mariko (and Blackthorne) was indeed lovely and poignant.

87

This last episode had the biggest departure from the book in many respects, while keeping important points and undercurrents.

I liked how they flesh out the back story to Mariko and why here father did what he did. In the book, there is not much explanation, but at the very beginning of this episode it is depicted based on actual historical events. Nobunaga was particularly angry with a particular Buddhist sect that opposed him and so he essentially obliterated them. This was one of the main reasons he was ultimately betrayed, which is seen at the beginning with Mariko’s father being angry about the monks being executed, something that is not explicitly explained in the book.

I completely agree that the scene with Kiku at the tea house was great, and it showed that she quickly read the undercurrent between Blackthone and Mariko. That also happens in the book with her also saying the same thing about it being dark and private and Mariko refusing. Yes, there is a more lighthearted feeling in the book, but I feel they played it well here. It served as a proxy for a lot of time in the book that could not be depicted in full in a series. That scene is definitely one of the best in the series.

Blackthorne’s re-request is not something that exactly occurs in the Novel though how Mariko reacts to what he says about the Jesuits and Portuguese is. The whole backstory with Ochiba is not really present, nor any direct machinations on her part, though it is implied. I did not find the later unwelcome just another departure. The Noh play was a good way to set the atmosphere in Osaka castle and an entry to the backstory. It is also a subtle hint to something in the book where it is noted that Toranaga is a great Noh player with the implication that he is very good at acting while keeping his true motivations and plans hidden.

The whole death of Ito and his retinue is one of those things that is spoken about in book but not explicitly depicted like it is in the episode, which I feel gives it more impact. I do like that a lot of what happens in Osaka, which is referred to in the Novel by reports once main characters are no longer there is being fully depicted. You get more of an idea that things are not just happening where the protagonists are.

I do wish what Toranaga is thinking was more explicitly shown as it is in the novel, but that is hard without narration or a monologue. As it is we only get to see mostly his exterior as a warlord, which is probably more accurate historically than what was in book. There is some of that portrayal in his conversations with Buntaro and Mariko as well as the subtle hint that he knows more than he lets on when he burns a carrier pigeon message that he does not share with anyone.

Anyway, I am getting long winded because I just finished watching the episode and although I have other thoughts I will just say, good episode, and I look forward to the next.

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88

There’s a lot of other lock styles between matchlock and true flintlock, like the snaplock - by around 1550, there were improved versions of the snaplock in use - the Portuguese were using Miquelet locks by then, the Dutch were using the snaphaunce (obviously these are broad generalizations and weapons moved from place to place)

In Japan, the matchlock was still the tech in use and would remain so. Confusingly, the type of matchlock used in Japanese guns is called the snap matchlock.

So: snaplock, snaphaunce, snap matchlock - no confusion there!

89

Au contraire, your lengthy and well-informed comments are entirely welcome.

90

Blackthorne is supposed to be the audience’s surrogate. In other words (no pun intended), we speak the languages Blackthorne speaks and understand what he understands. So when he is speaking to other European characters, regardless of the language, the communication is meant to be completely comfortable and seamless, with little to no gaps in translation.

Japanese language and culture is completely foreign to Blackthorne. So it makes sense that all the Japanese characters speak in their native Japanese.

Having Blackthorne and Rodrigues speak Portuguese or Dutch to each other is not important to the plot because the plot is not being driven by any potential language or cultural misunderstandings between them.

91

As good as the scene is, it contributes to an overall lack of something from the book, which is the fact the Japanese are not always serious, manner-bound, violence-obsessed weirdos. Clavell portrays them as being incredibly DIFFERENT from what Blackthorne understands, but not robots. They do laugh and enjoy things and tell jokes and have fun.

We are also not quite seeing something Clavell puts a lot of emphasis on, which is the difference between men and women in feudal Japan. We had Mariko’s great “women are just at war” line, but that’s kind of vague and doesn’t really tell you anything. Clavell’s characters actually explain their roles, which are not always what you’d expect - for instance, the frequently noted fact that it’s the women who control money and handle all matters financial.

92

Ikkō-ikki

93

The Ikko Ikki are a fairly good clan to play in Shogun 2. Their peasant troop units are bigger than other factions, which gives you a big early advantage. Not a great geographic position though.

94

Yup, they did a great job portraying all of that.

95

While I agree this is true, part of what defines him in the book is his command of several languages. It is expedient that we understand everything he says, as we do in the book, I just wish there was a way to convey that he knows more than just one language well. It is very briefly touched on by him in the first episode and later not elaborated upon. I feel that they could have better conveyed how relatively easy it is for him in particular to communicate with people using other languages, yet he has difficulty with Japanese. This would help emphasize the difficulty of the language to foreigners since a multilingual speaker has so much trouble.

I do not feel it is that important a plot point that not having it is really detrimental, just something I would have liked to see.

I do not agree with the characterization of being violence-obsessed in the series. There is a lot of political machinations that will result in war, but I do not see the main characters as actually wanting it or being particularly tied to it. While Buntaro was violent, this was actually shown as being a mistake that angers his Lord.

I do agree that there is not much injection of humor and light moments, though I think this is mostly a mater of the length of time used. The novel covers a longer time span and allows for departures from the main conflict that we are not seeing to a great extent.

I think this is mainly shown through Fuji in the book and it is true that we do not see a lot of in the series, though it is present. At the same time expanding Ochiba’s role is a way to show what influence women could have on the politics of the day.

/hijack
I assume by this you mean Total War: Shogun 2, which for the uninitiated is the sequel to the video game Shogun: Total War which was a turn based game (like Risk) where you try to conquer Japan. You can play as any of the clans and when you actually engage in battle it is a real-time 3D battle where you control the troops. It was well received (and I enjoyed playing it) and is notable because they employed British historian Stephen Turnbull who specializes in Japanese Military history.
/hijack

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96

Ochiba speaking to Ishido about her treatment in trying to get pregant was not in the book, but what she went through was true. But I don’t think in this episode that she revealed how she actually did get pregnant, and that bears on why she hates Toranaga, or is at least very untrusting of him. She knows he might have seen her and the peasant.

97

Chapter Seven: A Stick of Time This episode is by far the biggest departure from the book. A lot of things are kept, and events happen in different sequence and some lines by one character are given to other characters, which is expected, but a completely new event is added that does not appear in the book. That makes it a bit interesting for me since I already know the story so I did not expect to be surprised.

The stick of time in the title refers specifically to the commonly known senko incense stick which you most commonly see at temples in Japan where they are used a bit like the catholic use of candles, but you can also find in homes that have their own little shrine. Since they are of standard length, the amount of time it took to burn one became one way to measure time, which is indirectly mentioned in the episode but more explicitly explained in the novel. It is a good metaphor for what happens in the episode as well as reference to a particular scene.

The biggest change is of course is the death of Naga, which does not happen in the Novel. The rest is to a certain extent present. The meeting with his half brother has the same feeling as the novel in the sense of the animosity he has toward Toranaga, the summoning to Osaka in an insulting way, and him being a regent. In the Novel though, they all knew he was a regent before they met, there is no cordial initial meeting where they are swapping stories until things turn sour, and kiku is not provided to him either. It is actually Toranaga who uses her services, and the meeting with Gin is with kiku present playing music for them.

I did like that once again they showed rather than have someone say that Toranaga fought at the head of his troops when he was young. The story of the one stroke beheading that is later revealed as more than one, is in the book, though at a different point in the story.

The way they showed the sense of gloom that everyone had after his acquiescence was good, as well as the discussions between the people affected. The one person that was not as affected in the Novel but is shown here is Blackthorne. In the novel he has received consessions to be on his way and is not as distraught as the rest of the people and isn’t as insulting either. This is mainly due to the shortened time frame they are using in the series as opposed to the book.

There is also the use, I think to increase the sense of peril, of Toranaga losing people due to the earthquake. In the novel, some troops die, but it does not significantly affect his forces. In the novel the problem is not so much that he has few soldiers, but the fact that the number he has is inferior to the combined troops of the regents so he needs to have alliances to be able to succeed. Having it be so much about numbers I think would make it less compelling so I understand the decision there.

The scene with Gin and Toranaga is much longer in the novel, but is fairly portrayed. She is very perceptive in a way that his inner circle is not, which is also true in the book. I did feel that her hinting to Omi that Blackthorne was interested in someone else was out of place. Between Omi and Toranaga, there would be no question which would profit her the most, so giving Omi a secret, or even encouraging him in a way did not make sense to me. Maybe it is because she lives in his town that it does, but that rang false.

The scene with Yabushige taking a bath was great, he showed his bravado and sense of humor. In his other scene with Blackthorne as well, he really elevated himself in terms of likeable villain. The following scene with Buntaro and Mariko, was also really good. It really showed how much he prizes Mariko, I don’t think the word love is quite appropriate, though it might be. It also showed Toranaga’s intelligence in how he handles the situation, which is what does have in the Novel as well.

Naga’s death was unexpected, but given how they had portrayed him so far, makes sense. He already was shown as being rash before, so his actions when he feels everything is lost are consistent with that. It is not in the Novel, though he is shown as being slow in understanding subtleties around him and easily manipulated.

I am interested in seeing how they take the series to a conclusion with all the changes they made, and those they didn’t, in this episode.

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98

I’m still not certain whether his troops were significantly harmed by the quake or whether he’s exaggerating to hide his hand.

99

I would agree in principle, but at the same time, everyone else in his entourage is also saying it and they should know.

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100

Boy, you said it. This is wildly different, and not, for the most part, in good ways.

Mariko in the book has a sense of joy and the ability to find pleasure in things we do not get from her at all in the show, ever. In the show she’s perpetually morose. She also isn’t at all afraid of Toranaga, and stands up to him at times. One of the book’s best dialogue scenes is between her and Toranaga when she refuses to back down and just tells him how it is, and he’s delighted by it. Toranaga understands her brilliance and appreciates it.

The only change I liked was Igurashi being returned to Yabu without any of his body below the neck. In the book Igurashi just gets killed by the earthquake.