gatalito

Thank you for the link to your blog.
I' ve read the book as I mentioned in my review for the first season and I wouldn' t say that the situations he describes - aside of how accurate they might be from a journalistic point of view- look unrealistic or impossible.
The point of tbe book are not the characters not even the events true or fictional. It' s the dealings and doings of all these people. Japanese mafia, politicians, Police and the Press which are as it seems so entangled with each other that you can't deal with any of them without dealing indirectly with the others as well.
The series now is a very free adaptation of the book, because Aldestein didn' t bother to mention or develop any of the characters that he had dealings with.
That is the reason why I wrote in my review that the series' writer/s got the best of the source material because they developed some of these characters. The journalists, the hostess, the yakuza members and so on. There are no main characters or any particular plot in the book, just stories.
Now how accurate is the source material , if the characters names are the real ones or he speaks about real yakuza mobsters is something that doesn' t change that much the main plot and the point of the book and the series.
Unless this is not the case, I mean Yakuza was not and is not part of the Japanese society and it doesn' t control the politicians, and the economy, and the Press is not controlled by any of them, and the policemen are not bribrd etc. etc. etc.

That is a good question. What was the purpose of this remake? Just to add the scenes that they were missing from the previous series hoping that the viewers have read the book and watched that series? Because that is what I get from this remake. There is no reason to show who Blackthorne is because we saw it at the previous series. There is no reason to show the dancing scene because the cultural exchanges are probably uninmportant and we saw it at the other adaptation. There is no reason to show the Jesuit implication because that was covered at the previous time. And there is no reason to show and explain what is the deal with the black ship for the same reason.
I can' t help wondering what someone unrelated with the book and the first adaptation is going to understand as a first time viewer of this particularadaptation about the political, cultural and social background of feudal Japan and its interactions with the Elisabetan explorers and colonists....About their attitudes. Not that much....

I was very clear on what was rude in your comment. It is rude to comment on someone else' s replies without quoting directly the person you are talking about. It is a basic rule of internet netiquette.

Greetings to you too.

The first series have already done so. I can' t see why a remake based on the same book with higher budget and the CGI advancements had to ommit the two thirds of this book and downgrade the main POV character.
Aside that it is rude to comment my posts without quoting me.
Are you always so rude when you participate in public discussions?

I disagree because this adaptation doesn' t show how Blackthorne discovers and is trying to understand the Japanese feudal culture of that era and how odd and unfamiliar almost alien is that culture to him.
The old TV series showed the cultural differences, the clothes, the food, the hygiene, sex, life style attitudes, the strategic and tactical differences etc because they are important for the political subplot as Blackthorne's cultural background reflects on his approach towards political and militaty conflicts. Toranaga who is the ultimate manipulator doesn' t protect Blackthorne because he likes him, but because he can foresee that Blackthorne's different ways will catch his enemies in their sleep. Blackthorne doesn' t know a shit about Bushido, he shoots with his gun from a safe distance and Toranaga exploits that.
The book is multilayered and the original TV series were very well made including the most important themes of the book. The current series have not even bother to show who Blackthorne is in order to justify why Toranaga is interested about him and why he is considering him an asset in his quest to become a Shōgun.

You think wrong. I' ve read the book back in 1980 as a teenager

Panem et circenses......
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

In the book they speak in Latin too. But Blackthorne is a polyglot already speaking upon arriving to Japan English, Dutch, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish.
And in the process he learns Japanese too!

I would agree on that though this is not a good adaptation of the Shogun book. They butchered the most interesting parts of the book, those that were praising the Japanese culture and are focusing on the subplot of the Japanese feudal power strugles that are not the main theme of the book because the main character of the book doesn' t even understand them and that is the reason he ends up manipulated and used by Toranaga.

It has already an an unjustifiably high rating because this is not a that good adaptation of the book. Two thirds of the book are missing from this series. I don' t know what they are going to show in the next 8 episodes with all that butchering they have done to the book' s plot.

I would recomment to read the book if you haven' t read it yet.

I don' t have any objections on what to expect from the adaptation of a book but I do expect that the adaptation will at least respect the main themes and characters of that book. Otherwise it becomes something completely different.
This is not a good adaptation IMHO as the main character who is also the POV ( point of view) character of this book is not there.
The Blackthorne character is the Elizabetan era hero. One of those fearless badass explorers who travelled to the edges of an unkown for them world, in uncharted seas with the guidance of ruters, in other words with the notes that others kept in the style " be aware of the rock ten meters from the shore that is lighted by the moon the tenth day og August"! With no guidance based on hearsay info.
And that is what this book is all about. It is about the era of exploration.
Blackthorne ends up in Japan like he is landing on the Moon and he sees - and along with him we the readers and viewers see- is a different alien culture and the comparison and class of the Western and Eastern culture. And that makes the book so interesting and readable.
This adptation is focusing on the Japanese political and military power games adding some scenes that they were excluded by the previous TV adaptation but it doesn' t show some of the most iconic scenes that set the main theme of the book that is the awesome and unique Japan planet!!!
The book and the first adaptation inspired me to learn more about and eventually love Japanese culture.
I doubt if this adaptation will make the younger generations even bother to read the book because the main themes of the book are not there.

After watching the first two episodes I see that there are some considerable changes in the plot that don't make any favors to the Blackthorne character that is based btw to an existing historical person the first English who visited and eventually stayed in Japan.
The Blackthorne of the book is extremely intelligent and quite a bad ass, educated and a polyglot as well. Upon arriving in Japan he already speaks English, Dutch by his mother, Portuguese, Latin that was the school language of that era, and Spanish. Japanese didn' t initially arrest him because they considered him the leader of his crew and behave to him with politeness, though things went south with the intervention of the Portuguese Jesuits.
Blackthorne wasn't either aggressive towards Japanese unless he was provoked to be so.
What is downplayed a lot in this adaptation is the role of the Jesuits in the first contact between Blackthorne and the Japanese authorities, ( Yabu, Omi ) and the class of the different attitudes and cultures. When Blackthorne lands in Japan is like landing in another completely different planet! And this is what made the book and the first TV seriesadaptation so interesting
Welcome in the planet Japan were nothing is like you knew it.
I' m looking forward for the next two episodes and then I ' ll give you my full review as Shogun is one of my favorite books that I have read first in its translation in my native language back in the 80s and later on in the original English text. It is one of the most multilayered and well researched historical fiction books that it seems that none of its TV adaptations is able to depict accurately,

No...I wouldn' t say that it was evident. And on the other hand the fact that the characters didn't seem to age didn't help either. They should have aged them a bit with some make up.

Why is missing from the cast list the actor who plays Blackthorn?
He is not Asian but his role is if anything else a very very important (aka main) one.

Great! They all look like siblings and they might as well be ( judging by their surnames)!
They all have the same straight eye brows, the same type of wide almond eyes, the same model of button nose, the same size of small mouths, the same angle on their extremely pointy chins and long hair. I closed my eyes and voted randomly as it is not that voting otherwise makes that much difference!

Talking about the S. K weight standards I' m not impressed that her ex husband married the British actress and went to live in Rome! I' m pretty sure that the main reason for this choice is the quality and the attitude that the Italians have towards food!!

I have no objections on some slight editing to improve the quality of an image but this is not the case for this particular photoshoot. They edited that much the subject of these photos that they ended up showing somebody else. She doesn' t even look like herself and IDK .... I think that this is offensive for this actress because she is not after all that bad looking in her...original... real appearance! Lol
It's not that she is that ugly to start with, in order to change everything on her. Her face and her body proportions. This is an insult for this actress ...its like her real appearance is not good enough to get photographed.
I agree that it is to their credit that they mansge to survive in such a harsh industry but on the other hand it is not to their credit that they don' t react to such kind of abuse of their public image.
I would have sued the photographer / editor of such photos.

The comments point out the obvious. That S. Korean entertainment industry promotes fake and unachievable "beauty" standards.
Does this otherwise very beautiful actress look like her self in thia photoshoot?
Check here how she looks like at a non edited older photo.

https://akns-images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/201963/rs_1024x1536-190703204256-e-asia-song-hye-kyo-GettyImages-1027732184.jpg?fit=inside%7C900:auto&output-quality=90

I wonder why she didn't kill her ex husband too. The guy was IMHO the worst of all completely indifferent for the life of his own child. What sort of parent that is also a cop would advise his wife to fill a report for his own missing child instead of rushing out to find it?

I have seen this actress from distance of course during the filming of Descendants of the Sun in Greece and trust me. She doesn' t look like these photos in real life.. She is a very pretty of average height ( 160 hardly 165 cm) woman with very nice body proportions, very youthful face and very normal.
They made her look like an alien and as you said , like a comics character! They made her look completely fake and her face like it is made of wax something that doesn' t make any sense because she is very beautiful either way.
And yes ...a woman is not considered old at the age of 42.
She is in her prime now why spoil her appearance with all that tasteless editing..