Shogun [DVD] [2018]

In recent months, I have been revisiting and collection a lot of films starring the legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. This led me through a lot of great Akira Kurosawa films, The Samurai Trilogy and now Shogun. This forty year old television show is one that I had no idea existed and I am so glad I found. By sheer luck, I might add.Shogun, is a show that was originally released all the way back in September, 1980. The show stars Richard Chamberlain as the lead character John Blackthorne. A character who sets sail with his beautiful ship and scruffy looking crew in search of "The Japans". The group finally arrive, completely battered and bruised as well as completely demoralised. The crew who are still suffering from the particularly nasty storm become captives of the local Japanese residence. The situation results in a clash of cultures as Blackthorne struggles to adapt to Japanese culture, religion and eventually winning them over and becoming an a samurai for the great Toranaga, played by the previously mentioned film legend Toshiro Mifune.The story for the show is loosely based on true events, all based upon the life of the English navigator, William Adams. It's quite easy to follow with some very interesting twists and turns here and there. Seeing Blackthorne attempt to communicate and adapt to Japanese culture when he has no idea what they're saying or what is going on makes for an interesting watch. Because the lead character hasn't a clue in how to speak Japanese, the viewer is left without subtitles for the entire show. An interesting feature which puts the viewers in the same shoes as Blackthorne.The show isn't all about the Japanese however, as we quickly get introduced to the Portuguese traders and their Jesuit priests. This plot brings on a lot of drama and gives a particularly good portion of time to Jonathan Rhys Davies, who steals the show every time he's on screen. His character is a bit of a loud mouth equipped with witty quips and lots of un-politically correct things to say. I particularly enjoyed the competitive nature between Blackthorne and the villainous Portuguese. Being a subplot in the show, it helps change things up every now and again, not distracting from the main storyline.The acting in the show is pretty spot on, for the most part. The main cast deliver their lines with much conviction, putting every bit of effort they can into the thing. Davies sometimes acts it up a little but the over enthusiastic nature of his character means it's not too distracting (and quite amusing). Toshiro Mifune is his usual self. He sits around and generally looks intimidating. When he has to react and move around, he steals the show. He has this presence that just makes him fascinating to watch. The only real downer in terms of acting in Shogun is Blackthorne's crew. They're clearly not up to the same standard as everyone else and sound like fairly typical BBC/ITV scenery actors. They'd be more suited for something like Blackadder. But they're not in the show too long after the first hour, so it's only a minor drawback.The visuals of Shogun is where this show truly excels. The vast majority of film used for this bluray has clearly been well looked after. The transfer is very clean and extremely crisp. The scenes in which the characters interact on land all look excellent, highly detailed and loaded with colour. There's a lot of moments with open land and water, most of which have been well looked after. There's a few moments scattered throughout that involve certain special effects that looks a little iffy. For example, there are moments where there's a castle off in the distance and it is clearly stuck in and not on location. These little moments have clearly not aged well. The only other dodgy looking scenes tend to be the scenes involve the boats and ships in the water. But these moments are few and far between and not distracting from the overall quality of the product. For a television show that was made forty years ago, it has for the most part aged well.My only major gripes with the show is how it ended and the way it is presented on the bluray. Because it's a television show, I was expecting to see the show's introduction and credits at the end of each episode. This was not the case however and instead, Shogun is presented as a full on feature length film. There's no intro and no credits to indicate the moment in which to stop if say you get tired. I have a lot of free time on my hands, so it never bothered me too much. In fact, I watched it all in two sittings. But at three hours per bluray disc, it could be a bit much for those who work and have kids running around etc. The option to have breaks in between episodes would have been nice.In regards to the ending, not to spoil it or anything, but I felt that it ended an hour short. It literally ends just as it was getting seriously interesting and I would have happily have watched the events that took place after we finish up. It's a bit of a shame really because it's a little sudden and feels like they simply ran out of time with lots of story left to tell.But don't let my griping put you off, I literally had never heard of Shogun until about three weeks ago (at the time of reviewing it) and I loved every second of it. This is a great show that is very memorable, looks beautiful and is so different to everything we get on television in 2019. I highly recommend picking it up and enjoying one great forgotten television show.

It's not perfect; There's a few single frame blips (dirt/staining) that they could have done better in fixing, I'm sure. There is also one section of 3 or 4 black frames between frames so the image flickers momentarily early on in the "episode", and some of the shots I am convinced are merely 'upscaled' DVD masters (or possibly from a poorer print), which against the definitely HD shots I find sometimes quite jarring - in fact, they do look really quite ugly. There are, however, not that many.Most of the problems (including the original ten episodes all joined up into four longer 'episodes') can be fixed by any competent 'self-editor/encoder' so you could fix the black frames, and chop up back into ten more reasonable length episodes if you so chose, and I have so chosen), but for myself, I don't have the time nor inclination to attempt the individual frame cleanup that is lacking in parts. Nor can I do anything about the horrible 'upscaled' parts.Audio, ok on one level, in that the usual for most all DVD and Blu-ray - excessively loud and clipping with quiet dialogue - is not so bad on this. Yes there is the usual excessive loudness vs quiet dialogue, but there's not so many parts that have loud sound to get excessive in the first place, and where it does get loud there is relatively little clipping (relative to some of the gross monstrosities of audio assault that exist on plenty of discs). It's still a touch problematic to fix if you 'self-edit'.All that said, this is still a very worthy purchase that does look beautiful over all. I'm sure most would not be disappointed, and certainly most people aren't going to notice nor care about some of the details I might find fault with. Most people don't self-edit. Buy it and simply enjoy.

This is best watched when you have quite a lot of time as you can't wait to see more. (eg. binge watching over a holiday when weather is bad. Well worth the money.

Shogun is based on a true story, or at least on some true events. It's a great yarn & the acting is great. The TV series dates back to the 1980's, so not surprisingly some of it does look a little dated in the way that it's filmed. Despite that I found it very enjoyable. It comes with an extra's bonus disk which I have yet to watch but will update this review once I've had time to watch it.

To first watch this in 2019 is a treat. It's ambitious, exciting and quite thrilling. The historical nature of it holds up very well and its age holds up. Sure, some of it looks a little off (the boats and sea scenes maybe) but the rest is top notch, the great costumes and props. The vast majority of the actors are highly competent.Special kudos for the Japanese, there are almost no subtitles here, you learn with the characters and this learning is extremely well presented and breaks up the action. The character of Mikoto is particularly outstanding considering the actress originally hardly spoke any English! Very authentic!Think of this as one long TV film with high production values, the blue ray performance holds up and there's a fair amount of extras. My only dislike is the box art, nothing on the classic original.Now that I think about it, I dread the possible remake, it will be everything this show is not. Needlessly violent, bloated with cgi and will offer no insightful, quiet scenes that work so well here. I hope to be surprised, but I don't see this classic being bettered.

I fell in love with Mariko San in my 20s, and enjoyed revisiting this series. Technically Bluray shows the deficiencies of the original film stock, but it's a fascinating story that introduced westerners to a little known Japanese history.

A brilliant box set of the original "Shogun" tv series starring Richard Chamberlain. Set in 16th century Japan, it is roughly based on the Englishman William Adams who was blown ashore. He eventually rose to be made "Samurai". The only "outsider" to do so. An interesting insight into Japanese culture in that period. Well worth watching.