Shōgun (1980 miniseries)

Shōgun
Title card
Genre	Historical drama
Based on	Shōgun by James Clavell
Written by	Eric Bercovici
Directed by	Jerry London
Starring	Richard Chamberlain Toshiro Mifune Yoko Shimada Damien Thomas John Rhys-Davies Frankie Sakai Alan Badel Michael Hordern
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Country of origin	United States
Original languages	English Japanese
No. of episodes	5 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	James Clavell
Producer	Eric Bercovici
Cinematography	Andrew Laszlo
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	180 minutes (premiere/finale) 120 minutes (episodes 2–4) 159 minutes (theatrical version, Japan) 125 minutes (theatrical version, Europe)
Production company	Paramount Television
Budget	$22 million [1] ($69 million in 2020) [1]
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 15 (1980-09-15) – September 19, 1980 (1980-09-19)

Shōgun is a 1980 American historical drama miniseries based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name. The series was produced by Paramount Television and first broadcast in the United States on NBC over five nights between September 15 and 19, 1980. It was written by Eric Bercovici and directed by Jerry London, and stars Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, and Yoko Shimada, with a large supporting cast. Clavell served as executive producer.

The miniseries is loosely based on the adventures of English navigator William Adams, who journeyed to Japan in 1600 and rose to high rank in the service of the shōgun. It follows fictional John Blackthorne's (Chamberlain) experiences and political intrigues in feudal Japan in the early 17th century.

Shōgun received generally positive reviews from critics and won several accolades, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series, the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, and a 1981 Peabody Award.

A second series adapting the book was produced by FX and released on streaming platform FX on Hulu in 2024. ^[2]

Plot

Main article: Shōgun (novel)

After his Dutch trading ship Erasmus and its surviving crew is blown ashore by a violent storm at Anjiro on the east coast of Japan, Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, the ship's English navigator, is taken prisoner by samurai warriors. When he is later temporarily released, he must relinquish his English identity, while adapting to the alien Japanese culture in order to survive. Being an Englishman, Blackthorne is at both religious and political odds with his enemy, the Portuguese traders, and the Catholic Church's Jesuit order. The Catholic foothold in Japan puts Blackthorne, a Protestant and therefore a heretic, at a political disadvantage. This same situation, however, also brings him under the scrutiny of the influential Lord Toranaga, who mistrusts this foreign religion now spreading throughout Japan. He is competing with other samurai warlords of similar high-born rank, among them Catholic converts, for the very powerful position of shōgun, the military governor of Japan.

Through an interpreter, Blackthorne later reveals certain surprising details about the Portuguese traders and their Jesuit overlords. He explains to Lord Toranaga about the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas which was signed between Portugal and Spain in 1494, forcing Toranaga to trust him; they forge a tenuous alliance, much to the chagrin of the Jesuits. To help the Englishman learn their language and to assimilate to Japanese culture, Toranaga assigns a teacher and interpreter to him, the beautiful Lady Mariko, a Catholic convert and one of Toranaga's most trusted retainers. Blackthorne soon becomes infatuated with her, but Mariko is already married, and their budding romance is ultimately doomed by future circumstances. Blackthorne also ends up saving the life of a Portuguese counterpart, Pilot Vasco Rodrigues, who becomes his friend despite their being on opposite sides.

Blackthorne saves Toranaga's life by audaciously helping him escape from Osaka Castle and the clutches of his longtime enemy, Lord Ishido. To reward the Englishman, and to forever bind him to his service, Toranaga makes Blackthorne hatamoto , a personal retainer, and gifts him with a European flintlock pistol. Later, Blackthorne again saves Toranaga's life during an earthquake by pulling him from a fissure that opened and swallowed the warlord, nearly killing him. Having proved his worth and loyalty to the warlord, during a night ceremony held before a host of his assembled vassals and samurai, Lord Toranaga makes Blackthorne a samurai; he awards him the two swords, 20 kimono, 200 of his own samurai, and an income-producing fief, the fishing village Anjiro, where Blackthorne was first blown ashore with his ship and crew. Blackthorne's repaired ship Erasmus, under guard by Toranaga's samurai and anchored near Kyoto, is lost to a fire, which quickly spread when the ships' night lamps are knocked over by a storm tidal surge. During a later attack on Osaka Castle by the secretive Amida Tong (ninja assassins), secretly paid for by Lord Ishido, Mariko is killed while saving Blackthorne's life, who is temporarily blinded by the black powder explosion that kills her. Lord Yabu is forced to commit seppuku for his involvement with the ninja attack, into which he was coerced by Ishido. Right before he dies, Yabu gives Blackthorne his katana, and Yabu's nephew, Omi, becomes the daimyō of Izu.

Blackthorne supervises the construction of a new ship, The Lady, using funds Mariko left to him in her will for this very purpose. Blackthorne is observed at a distance by Lord Toranaga; in a voice-over he reveals his inner thoughts, observing that Blackthorne still has much to teach him. It was Toranaga who ordered the Erasmus destroyed by fire to keep Blackthorne safe from his Portuguese enemies, who feared his hostile actions with the ship (and, if need be, the warlord will also destroy the new ship Blackthorne is currently building). He also discloses Mariko's secret but vital role in the grand deception of his enemies, and, as a result, how she was destined to die, helping to assure his coming final victory. The warlord knows that Blackthorne's karma brought him to Japan and that the Englishman, now his trusted retainer and samurai, is destined never to leave. Toranaga also knows it is his karma to become shōgun.

In a voice-over epilogue, it is revealed that Toranaga and his army are triumphant at the Battle of Sekigahara; he captures and then disgraces his old rival, Lord Ishido, burying him up to his neck to die slowly. The narrator concludes that when the Emperor of Japan offered Toranaga the position of shōgun, he "reluctantly agreed".

Cast

Performer	Role
Starring
Richard Chamberlain	Pilot-Major John Blackthorne "Anjin-san" (based on William Adams)
Toshiro Mifune	Yoshi Toranaga, Lord of the Kanto Region
Yoko Shimada	Lady Toda Buntaro "Mariko"
Frankie Sakai	Lord Kashigi Yabu, Daimyo of Izu
Also starring
Alan Badel	Father Dell'Aqua
Michael Hordern	Friar Domingo
Damien Thomas	Father Martin Alvito
John Rhys-Davies	Vasco Rodrigues
Vladek Sheybal	Captain Ferreira
George Innes	Johann Vinck
Leon Lissek	Father Sebastio
Yūki Meguro	Kashigi Omi, Head Samurai of Anjiro
Hideo Takamatsu	Lord Toda Buntaro
Hiromi Senno	Usagi Fujiko
Nobuo Kaneko	Ishido Kazunari, Ruler of Osaka Castle
Featuring
Edward Peel	Jan Pieterzoon
Eric Richard	Maetsukker
Steve Ubels	Roper
Stewart MacKenzie	Croocq
John Carney	Ginsel
Ian Jentle	Salamon
Neil McCarthy	Spillbergen
Morgan Sheppard	Specz
Seiji Miyaguchi	Muraji
Toru Abe	Toda Hiromatsu
Mika Kitagawa	Kiku
Shin Takuma	Yoshi Naga
Hiroshi Hasegawa	Galley Captain
Akira Sera	Old Gardener
Hyoei Enoki	Jirobei
Miiko Taka	Kiri
Midori Takei	Sono
Ai Matsubara	Rako
Yumiko Morishita	Asa
Rinichi Yamamoto	Yoshinaka
Yuko Kada	Sazuko
Masumi Okada	Brother Michael
Yosuke Natsuki	Zataki
Takeshi Obayashi	Urano
Yoshie Kitsuda	Gyoko
Masashi Ebara	Suga
Setsuko Sekine	Genjiko
Atsuko Sano	Lady Ochiba
Orson Welles	Narrator

Only three of the Japanese actors spoke English in the entire production: Shimada, Obayashi, and Okada. At the time of filming, Shimada knew very little English, and heavily relied on her dialogue coach to deliver her lines phonetically. The English words that she could not pronounce were substituted or overdubbed in post-production.

Production

Clavell and NBC wanted Sean Connery to play Blackthorne, but Connery reportedly laughed at the idea of working for months in Japan, as he had disliked filming You Only Live Twice there. ^[3] According to the documentary The Making of Shōgun, other actors considered for the role included Roger Moore and Albert Finney.

Clavell said he was originally opposed to Richard Chamberlain's casting, wanting Albert Finney. However he was extremely happy with Chamberlain's performance: "He's marvelous", said Clavell. ^[4]

The 16th-century European sailing ship used in the series was Golden Hinde, a replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind . It was built in the early 1970s to mark the 400th anniversary of Drake's circumnavigation. After it underwent a restoration programme, the ship remains as an exhibit located at St Mary Overie Dock, Cathedral Street, London, SE1 9DE, United Kingdom. ^[5]

Shots of Toranaga's castle used Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture.

Release

Broadcast

Shōgun was broadcast in the United States on NBC over five nights between September 15 and 19, 1980.^{[ citation needed ]} A version of the miniseries edited into one-hour episodes has been broadcast in North America.^{[ citation needed ]}

Theatrical release

In Japan, Shōgun was cut to a 159-minute version and released theatrically on November 9, 1980. ^[6] Stuart Galbraith IV described this version of the film as "fatally cut to ribbons". ^{[6] [7]} It was later restored to its full length for a home video release in Japan. ^{[6] [7]}

A heavily truncated 125-minute edit of the miniseries was released in 1980 to European theatrical film markets. This was also the first version of Shōgun to be released to the North American home video market (a release of the full miniseries did not occur until later). The theatrical version contains additional violence and nudity that had been removed from the NBC broadcast version.

Home media

The five-disc DVD release has no episode breaks and bonus features on disc 5.

• DVD release: September 30, 2003
• Feature length: 547 minutes
• Extras: 13-segment documentary on the making of Shōgun (79:24); Historical Featurettes – The Samurai (5:34), Tea Ceremony (4:35), and Geisha (4:56); audio commentary by Director Jerry London on 7 selected scenes ^[8]

The 125-minute version has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.

CBS Home Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Shōgun on three discs was on July 22, 2014, and featured a 1080p remastered video presentation, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound mix, and a restored Dolby Digital mono track; the special features are exactly the same as on the original 2003 DVD release.

Reception

Critical response

Shōgun was produced after the success of the television miniseries Roots (1977) that had aired on the ABC Network in 1977. The success of Roots, as well as Jesus of Nazareth (1977), resulted in many other miniseries during the 1980s. Shōgun, which first aired in 1980, also became a highly rated program and continued the wave of miniseries over the next few years (such as North and South and The Thorn Birds ) as networks clamored to capitalize on the format's success.

NBC had the highest weekly Nielsen ratings in its history with Shōgun. Its 26.3 average rating was the second highest in television history after ABC's with Roots. An average of 32.9% of all television households watched at least part of the series. ^[9] The miniseries' success was credited with causing the mass-market paperback edition of Clavell's novel to become the best-selling paperback in the United States, with 2.1 million copies in print during 1980, ^[10] and increased awareness of Japanese culture in America. In the documentary The Making of 'Shōgun' it is stated that the rise of Japanese food establishments in the United States (particularly sushi houses) is attributed to Shōgun. It was also noted that during the week of broadcast, many restaurants and movie houses saw a decrease in business. The documentary states many stayed home to watch Shōgun—unprecedented for a television broadcast. (The home VCR was not yet ubiquitous and still expensive in 1980.)

The Japanese characters speak in Japanese throughout, except when translating for Blackthorne; the original broadcast did not use subtitles for the Japanese dialog. As the movie was presented from Blackthorne's point of view, the producers felt that "what he doesn't understand, we [shouldn't] understand". ^[11]

Sexuality and violence

Shōgun broke several broadcast taboos and contained several firsts for American television.

• It was the first network show allowed to use the word "piss" in dialogue and actually to show the act of urination. As a symbolic act of Blackthorne's subservience to the Japanese ruling class and to punish him for saying "I piss on you and your country", Blackthorne is urinated upon by Kasigi Omi, a local leading samurai. ^[12]
• In the first episode, Blackthorne's stranded shipmates are to be suspended in a cargo net into a boiling vat of soy sauce and water; one of them, Pieterzoon, is killed that way until Blackthorne acquiesces to the Japanese nobility.
• A man is shown beheaded early in the first chapter, another first for network TV (although the film version of the sequence was more bloody).
• Men are shown wearing fundoshi.
• Mariko is shown naked in a bath scene, and when Blackthorne is reunited with his men, a woman's breast is visible.
• Shōgun was also noted for its frank discussion of sexuality (e.g., pederasty), and matters such as Japanese ritual suicide (seppuku).

Reception in Japan

The miniseries was reported to have been negatively received in Japan, where it was broadcast in 1981 on TV Asahi, as the series' fictionalization of events in the 16th century seemed frivolous and trivial. ^[13] Many Japanese viewers were already accustomed to historical drama series such as NHK's annual taiga dramas, which were considered more faithful towards the history they are depicting than the miniseries. ^[13]

Viewership

Episode	Original US air date	Timeslot (ET)	Household rating [14]	Household viewers (millions) [14]
1	September 15, 1980	8 pm – 11 pm	29.5	23.0
2	September 16, 1980	8 pm – 10 pm	31.7	24.7
3	September 17, 1980	9 pm – 11 pm	36.9	28.7
4	September 18, 1980	9 pm – 11 pm	35.6	27.7
5	September 19, 1980	8 pm – 11 pm	31.5	24.5

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
1980	Peabody Awards	—	NBC and Paramount Television	Won	[15]
1981	American Cinema Editors Awards	Best Edited Episode from a Television Mini-Series	James T. Heckert, Bill Luciano, Donald R. Rode, Benjamin A. Weissman, and Jerry Young (for "Episode 1")	Nominated	[16]
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Television Series – Drama		Won	[17]
		Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama	Richard Chamberlain	Won
		Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama	Yoko Shimada	Won
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite TV Mini-Series		Won	[18]
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Limited Series	James Clavell and Eric Bercovici	Won	[19]
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special	Richard Chamberlain	Nominated
			Toshiro Mifune	Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special	Yoko Shimada	Nominated
		Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special	Yūki Meguro	Nominated
			John Rhys-Davies	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special	Jerry London (for "Episode 5")	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special	Eric Bercovici (for "Episode 5")	Nominated
		Outstanding Art Direction for a Limited Series or a Special	Joseph R. Jennings, Yoshinobu Nishioka, Tom Pedigo, and Shoichi Yasuda (for "Episode 5")	Nominated
		Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or a Special	Andrew Laszlo (for "Episode 4")	Nominated
		Outstanding Costume Design for a Series	Shin Nishida (for "Episode 5")	Won
		Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special	Donald R. Rode, Benjamin A. Weissman, Jerry Young, and Bill Luciano (for "Episode 5")	Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing	Stanley Paul, William M. Andrews, Leonard Corso, Denis Dutton, Jack A. Finlay, Robert Gutknecht, Sean Hanley, Pierre Jalbert, Jack Keath, Alan L. Nineberg, Lee Osborne, and Tally Paulos (for "Episode 3")	Nominated
		Outstanding Graphic Design and Title Sequences	Phill Norman (for "Episode 1")	Won

See also

• List of historical films set in Asia
• Tokugawa Ieyasu , 1983 taiga drama about the life of Ieyasu, the basis for Lord Toranaga, aired two years after Shōgun's Japan release.
• Shōgun (2024 TV series), adapted from the same novel

References

1. "Hollywood Flashback: One in Three TV Sets Tuned In to 'Shogun' in 1980". The Hollywood Reporter . June 24, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
2. "FX Shogun | on Hulu and FX".
3. Mavis, Paul (March 14, 2011). "Shogun – 30th Anniversary Edition". DVDTalk. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
4. "CLAVELL: CHEERS FOR CHAMBERLAIN'S CRAFT: CHAMBERLAIN". Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1980. p. g1.
5. Stabler, Simon (June 2023). "The Gold Standard" . Best of British. p. 52. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
6. Galbraith IV 2008, p. 324.
7. Galbraith IV 2008, p. 325.
8. James Clavell's Shōgun http://www.genreonline.net/Shogun_DVD.html Retrieved August 15, 2009
9. "'Shogun' Tops Nielsens". Cornell Daily Sun. Associated Press. September 24, 1980. p. 17. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
10. Walters, Ray (October 12, 1980). "Paperback Talk". New York Times. pp. A47.
11. Whitesell, Paul (June 26, 1980). "Graphic scenes are reportedly intact in 'Shōgun' series for TV". Toledo Blade .
12. Shōgun. Dir. Jerry London. Paramount Home Video, 1994. OCLC   53026518 ISBN   978-0-7921-9332-6 (2003).
13. Clements, Jonathan; Tamamuro, Motoko (2003). "Introduction". The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press. p. xxiv. ISBN   1-880656-81-7 . Retrieved August 7, 2019.
14. "The Nielsen ratings". The Southeast Missourian. September 26, 1980. p. 14. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
15. "Shōgun". Peabody Awards . Retrieved October 15, 2023.
16. "Nominees/Winners". IMDb . Retrieved April 3, 2019.
17. "Shōgun". Golden Globe Awards . Retrieved October 15, 2023.
18. "1981 Nominees & Winners". People's Choice Awards. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016.
19. "Shōgun". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . Retrieved October 15, 2023.

Sources

• Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-1461673743 . Retrieved October 29, 2013.

External links

• Shōgun at IMDb