James Clavell's Shogun
From best-selling author James Clavell (King Rat, Noble House) comes the sweeping award-winning story of love and war. Set against the spectacular background of feudal Japan at the beginning of the 17th century. And Shogun has never looked better than it does on DVD in this thrilling presentation. Richard Chamberlain (TV's Dr. Kildare, The Thorn Birds) stars as John Blackthorne, an English navigator shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. Rescued, he becomes an eyewitness to a deadly struggle involving Toranaga (Toshiro Mifune, Rashomon), a feuding warlord intent on becoming Shogun-the supreme military dictator. At the same time, Blackthorne is irresistibly drawn into the turmoil and finds himself vying to become the first-ever Gai-jin (Foreigner) to be made a Samurai warrior. The complete nine-hour presentation of this landmark television miniseries is presented in this exclusive five-disc set, with fascinating, brand-new special features that complement this acclaimed epic adventure!
Member Reviews
This earned the fame - Gaucho
Typically, if you remember something was good on TV about 30 years back, the re-watching won't live up to the memory.
Not so with this mini-series.
They faithfully followed the book, which read like a high quality movie to begin with, and gave the same feelings/ideas/drama while being confined to the television.
The only weak link was Richard Chamberlain, who is a terrible actor. His acting is even worst in this, since he's surrounded by amazing acting from the international cast. Still, there's a lot more going on than Blackthorne.
Check it out.A Grand effort - Chucky
Although this miniseries did pass on television, I was occupied with other matters and never got to actually sit down and watch it. Being a true Clavell fan I have read the book over and over so I am quite familiar with the subject matter. Given that most people would rather watch the mini series than read the 1100+ page tome, I feel that to properly review this movie I should mention the following;
Although this series spand 4 disks and takes several evenings to watch, most of the detail and nuance of the novel is missed, watching this film is a lot like eating a meal prepared by someone that is missing a lot of ingredients. The ending has been changed to make the central character look good rather than to make an effort to portray those brutal times. I felt that the Japanese was a nice touch but not everyone understands Japanese, a better effort could have been made to bring the viewers into the dialogue than have a narator horn into the movie at the odd point here and there.
All said and done, I did like the movie in spite of its shortcommings, this I attribute to the masterful way in which the story was written. Like most movies made from Clavell's work, justice is rarely done with the sole exception of King Rat but I think that this film is worth watching at least once.A TV Mini-series Better Than Most Movies - sinic
I admit that I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when during the opening scene of the movie, the shadow of a helicopter could be seen when filming the ship in the ocean ... that feeling went away almost immediately and what transpired was one of the most entertaining mini series I have ever seen.
I admit that I am a HUGE fan of the book (I have read it probably 4 times) and I really wanted this to be great. I was not disappointed as the pictures I had in my head when imagining the setting were displayed nicely on screen. The acting is not Oscar worthy, but it does the job. They didn't stray far from the book, so the story is as close to perfect as you can get.
I love this collection of DVDs and recommend it to all fans of the book and anyone remotely intrigued by Japanese Samuari culture.
Member Reviews
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This earned the fame - Gaucho
Typically, if you remember something was good on TV about 30 years back, the re-watching won't live up to the memory.
Not so with this mini-series.
They faithfully followed the book, which read like a high quality movie to begin with, and gave the same ...A Grand effort - Chucky
Although this miniseries did pass on television, I was occupied with other matters and never got to actually sit down and watch it. Being a true Clavell fan I have read the book over and over so I am quite familiar with the subject matter. Given that most ...A TV Mini-series Better Than Most Movies - sinic
I admit that I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when during the opening scene of the movie, the shadow of a helicopter could be seen when filming the ship in the ocean ... that feeling went away almost immediately and what transpired was one of the most ...