Quite good action movie. The first few minutes were the "80's Top Gun" but after that it was totally different movie. Not many countries producing their own jet fighters, so this one served as a good nationalism awareness to Chinese citizens.
As foreigners you may call this a communist propaganda but then China is a Communist country so I wonder why you would complain about that. I guess "propaganda" will be the last thing people mentioned if this was a US military movie.
On the negative side though, it's kind of funny and ironic when they were showing US jets entering their air space but the whole world know how China tend to overclaim their Air and Maritime borders....LoL. So when the US jets entered did they enter the overclaimed one?
The second one being the too loud background music.
One of the things that made me laugh was the pilot (an English) pointing fingers at the Portuguese and Spaniards…
But the premise is about this sailor stranded in Japan.
I understand what they were trying to do in making the Japanese characters more up front...but then again they failed to polish it.
Toranaga was simply bland (I mean the writing not acting). Mariko was okay but some of her mindsets are not authentic as a samurai woman (especially when she did not give a damn about her family, Toda). Yabushige was interesting but he was there for comic relief.
The council of regents did not give an impact. They were just there because there were there in the book.
In the end we don't have a real protagonist to root for. Not to mention few episodes before last were fillers with no development. And in the last episode when people hoping for BIG thing, it did not happen.
I watched some of the clips of the old TV shows. The Blackthorne character was more make sense and civilized.
For the record, I still think this series is Okay-ish. But does not deserve the high rating it received.
One of the things that made me laugh was the pilot (an English) pointing fingers at the Portuguese and Spaniards…
I noticed that as well during the beginning but I suspect it was the narrative of the source material (which is to make Portuguese and Spaniards the villains) although I haven't read the novel. So I just let it slide.
However the Blackthorne's character could have been written better. He was neither a hero nor an anti-hero. He was simply not worth to root for (and annoying for most part). I saw bad reviews on IMDB saying it won't change anything whether he was there or not in the series....which I agree. I also saw some clips of Chamberlain and I think they have a much better Blackthorne in the 80's mini series.
Good effort but unfortunately failed to cater some segments of viewers (judging from the reviews at IMDB); 1. Fans of the book 2. Fans of Japanese history 3. Fans of politics scheming 4. Fans of strong, relatable, lovable protagonist 5. Fans of "I want to watch TV not reading it"...lol 6. Fans of good lighting 7. Portuguese
(I am #2 and #3 for the record so I only rate this 7.5/10)
Unless you're from the above you will find Shogun super masterpiece. Otherwise it is just another western series to kill your time. Later half was more draggy than the first though. Some episodes were just fillers.
The positive thing about this series; 1. The effort to make things authentic by the western production is laudable although they didn't score fullmark in this department IMO. 2. Thank God they didn't make Japanese speaking English. 3. The series could attract more people into learning Japanese history and searching for the actual history facts.
It was one of my most anticipated dramas of the year, and it has delivered. So many aspects of Shogun are reference-level,…
The thing is even the costumes are not as accurate as they thought it would be. To certain level yes but Japanese are peculiar about what they wear in what occasion. They simply don't just wear new year getup on every day or at any random days. The samurai don't wear armour at random place in peace time or to escort anyone. Not to mention the portrayal of army in this era was too far from what actually portrayed on modern-made historical piece of Japanese TV.
Yes I totally agree this version of Toranaga seemed very weak especially as they advertised him as big lord that's envied by everyone. He supposed to be sneaky and full of maneuvering but it didn't show. How come Lord of this caliber too dependent on his retainer's son's wife (Mariko) is totally disrespectful for the person this character was based off. And yes making Mariko solved the dispute around Ochiba was too outstretched and by any means wasn't even close to what actually happened in real history.
This is very strange sitting position if you used to Japanese historical play. Mariko should not be at the same level as the lord. She should sit below instead. Only his wife/consorts can sit next to lord.
Yea, that muted ending and furniture of a protagonist didn't do it for me. Never once was he shown to be actually…
Yabushige was interesting because it was played by Asano Tadanobu. If you watched his other works you will see the similarities of the vibe he brought to the character he played.
Are there any other historical Japanese dramas as good as this? Nothing I'm finding looks good.
It depends on what aspect you think good from this series. If production maybe not so many dramas but for scheming politics and authentic portrayals of Japanese History, there are tons of them.
all though it may be a good show and based on Japanese history, this is not a Japanese drama… idk why things…
I already answered this in my older comments some months ago but Sanada Hiroyuki (the person who played Toranaga) is one of the producers. So by rule of MDL it can be added.
Done watching this! Overall it was good (and of course funny) despite taking on heavy topics. The last episode delivered such an important message especially to Japanese society as they tend to take things too seriously to ridiculous level such as the word usage in the news/TV.
Yeah it is obvious but what people need to do is be TOLERANT instead of pessimistically stick on a specific idealism. World is more fluid than you think.
The musical part felt awkward at the beginning but it made sense later that they tried to loose things up on those otherwise nagging topics.
Personally, I think this one is better than Kudo Kankuro's dramas last year.
LoL just realized most of the character names are messed up by the google translate.
Finally done watching. It was a typical slice of life Edo with semi episodic format but the main plot was about the growth of Katsu family. There were time-jumps so it's not fixed to certain moment of their life.
One of the interesting aspect I found about this drama is the educational info about the social structure of the time especially on the status of Hatamoto. Being a Hatamoto doesn't guarantee a samurai a smooth living. However they could get away with things (untouchable by the police for instance) and gained respect due to that status, despite living in poverty and jobless....lol
Looking forward for S2. Thanks to Nuve for providing us the subtitle!
It's an okay watch. I wish they didn't split the stories according to the POV of 3 main characters alternately. It would have been better if they made the stories run in parallel instead.
Other than that the circumstances/backstories of these main characters were too sounded familiar and cliche, it felt like dejavu and boring. However they know how to make cliffhanger at the end of episode so viewers would want to know what happens next.
The mystery part was not predictable but lacked suspense element.
3 
1 
1 
As foreigners you may call this a communist propaganda but then China is a Communist country so I wonder why you would complain about that. I guess "propaganda" will be the last thing people mentioned if this was a US military movie.
On the negative side though, it's kind of funny and ironic when they were showing US jets entering their air space but the whole world know how China tend to overclaim their Air and Maritime borders....LoL. So when the US jets entered did they enter the overclaimed one?
The second one being the too loud background music.
I understand what they were trying to do in making the Japanese characters more up front...but then again they failed to polish it.
Toranaga was simply bland (I mean the writing not acting). Mariko was okay but some of her mindsets are not authentic as a samurai woman (especially when she did not give a damn about her family, Toda). Yabushige was interesting but he was there for comic relief.
The council of regents did not give an impact. They were just there because there were there in the book.
In the end we don't have a real protagonist to root for. Not to mention few episodes before last were fillers with no development. And in the last episode when people hoping for BIG thing, it did not happen.
I watched some of the clips of the old TV shows. The Blackthorne character was more make sense and civilized.
For the record, I still think this series is Okay-ish. But does not deserve the high rating it received.
However the Blackthorne's character could have been written better. He was neither a hero nor an anti-hero. He was simply not worth to root for (and annoying for most part). I saw bad reviews on IMDB saying it won't change anything whether he was there or not in the series....which I agree. I also saw some clips of Chamberlain and I think they have a much better Blackthorne in the 80's mini series.
1. Fans of the book
2. Fans of Japanese history
3. Fans of politics scheming
4. Fans of strong, relatable, lovable protagonist
5. Fans of "I want to watch TV not reading it"...lol
6. Fans of good lighting
7. Portuguese
(I am #2 and #3 for the record so I only rate this 7.5/10)
Unless you're from the above you will find Shogun super masterpiece. Otherwise it is just another western series to kill your time. Later half was more draggy than the first though. Some episodes were just fillers.
The positive thing about this series;
1. The effort to make things authentic by the western production is laudable although they didn't score fullmark in this department IMO.
2. Thank God they didn't make Japanese speaking English.
3. The series could attract more people into learning Japanese history and searching for the actual history facts.
Yes I totally agree this version of Toranaga seemed very weak especially as they advertised him as big lord that's envied by everyone. He supposed to be sneaky and full of maneuvering but it didn't show. How come Lord of this caliber too dependent on his retainer's son's wife (Mariko) is totally disrespectful for the person this character was based off. And yes making Mariko solved the dispute around Ochiba was too outstretched and by any means wasn't even close to what actually happened in real history.
Yeah it is obvious but what people need to do is be TOLERANT instead of pessimistically stick on a specific idealism. World is more fluid than you think.
The musical part felt awkward at the beginning but it made sense later that they tried to loose things up on those otherwise nagging topics.
Personally, I think this one is better than Kudo Kankuro's dramas last year.
One of the interesting aspect I found about this drama is the educational info about the social structure of the time especially on the status of Hatamoto. Being a Hatamoto doesn't guarantee a samurai a smooth living. However they could get away with things (untouchable by the police for instance) and gained respect due to that status, despite living in poverty and jobless....lol
Looking forward for S2. Thanks to Nuve for providing us the subtitle!
Other than that the circumstances/backstories of these main characters were too sounded familiar and cliche, it felt like dejavu and boring. However they know how to make cliffhanger at the end of episode so viewers would want to know what happens next.
The mystery part was not predictable but lacked suspense element.