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Special Features
- Complete miniseries on five discs with remastered sound
- "The Making of Shogun" a 13-segment documentary
- 3 historical perspective featurettes
- Commentary by director Jerry London on select scenes
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Customer Reviews
As Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, Chamberlain is often called upon to do more with looks than with dialogue. As the "King of the Mini-Series," it is easy to forget what Chamberlain can do as an actor given the proper material (I wish his version of Christopher Fry's "The Lady's Not For Burning" was available on video tape). Actually, there is a sense in which Chamberlain's performance is arguable the weakest of the cast, but that speaks more to the strength of the supporting players. Certainly John Rhys-Davies steals every scene he is in as Vasco Rodrigues, Damien Thomas' Father Alvito personifies political machination, and Nobuo Kaneko as Lord Ishido has that glare down perfectly. Ultimately, it is the Japanese actors who carry "Shogun." From the legendary Toshirô Mifune as Lord Toranaga, to the novice actress Yôko Shimada as Mariko, to Frankie Sakai as Yabu and every one of the characters who make up Blackthorne's Japanese household, these actors provide the new word that confront's Chamberlain's character. The choice of producer Eric Bercovici to also adopt Clavell's novel was the ideal choice. Bercovici was not only familiar with the mini-series format, having done "Washington Behind Close Doors," but he was the writer on "Hell in the Pacific," a 1968 movie with Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune. During WWII the two men end up on a deserted island. What made the film unique was that it was done without subtitles; Marvin spoke English and Mifune spoke Japanese and the idea was to show it in both countries without subtitles. Okay, unfair advantage to the Japanese, but you have to appreciate the idea which "Shogun" certainly uses to great effect.
Director Jerry London does an admirable job of presenting Japanese culture on its own terms, which is exactly what is right for the story. My understanding was that the Orson Welles narration was added at the, uh, request of the network who felt audiences would not be able to read between the lines. I think that for the most part "Shogun" would work without the excessive explanations, even if you have not read the novel, but we will never know.
If you are looking for something to lose yourself in next weekend, you would not find too many things as intelligent and as fascinating as "Shogun." Just be sure you do the complete original mini-series and not the one cassette mini-version.
Throughout this mini-series the photography is stunning, the action impressive, and the romance steamy. The acting here is also probably the best overall of any epic film. The film follows closely to the book with minor exceptions, and keeps the viewer riveted throughout the entire series. Also the continual battle between Blackthorn and the Jesuit Priest, Father Alvito, seems to have been written to match the feud between Ishido and Toranaga. Both feuds are intense and gut-wrenching, leading though to different types of endings.
This series is a great story, told well, and captures the imagination quickly. I would recommend this to any viewer who likes an action-packed and entertaining adventure. Just be prepared: There are some scenes that are a little violent. This was necessary to get the feel for how violent this period was in Japan, however it can still be a wee bit disturbing. This is probably not for the pre-teen crowd.
I'd like to know what some of the other reviewers think was deleted in this edition. I was very familiar with the miniseries, having seen it several times and having taped it at the time on an old Betamax, and I didn't notice anything missing in the DVD edition...except that accidental helicopter shadow! Nothing that I expected to see was gone. As an earlier customer pointed out, the original show ran for 12 hours on NBC because of all the commercials, network promos, opening titles and closing credits in every segment, etc. Take out all that padding, and 9 hours of actual program content sounds about right. If anybody can identify any actual deletions, I'd be interested in hearing what they are.
I would have liked to have seen the brief nude scenes of Mariko in the bath included as much as the next guy. But they were only in the European version anyway. (Americans are considered by the world to be backward children in these matters.) They were never in the American version, so although they would have been a welcome bonus, we can't say they were "deleted."
It was a real pleasure to start playing Shogun when the DVD package arrived, and Amazon.com had the best price for it that I could find, so that was an added benefit. Never had I seen it with the sharpness and clarity of the DVD. Maybe it took the advent of DVD to do justice to what is, for me, the greatest of all miniseries.
At 9 hours, quite long, though I am very happy that I got it and
will likely watch it multiple times for... Read more
