Shōgun’s Director Talks About Filming Episode 9’s Spoilery Death Scene, And How A Positive COVID Test Almost Derailed The Whole Thing
Warning: spoilers for Episode 9 of FX’s Shogun, “Crimson Sky,” are going to be heavily discussed.
In a series about measured sacrifice and honor, it’s probably fair to say that even the most diehard fans of Shōgun are still reeling from the death that capped off last week’s episode. “Crimson Sky” is the penultimate entry in FX's James Clavell adaptation that has been sweeping the 2024 TV schedule, and it’s set up quite a high bar of emotion that this week’s finale will definitely try and clear.
After discussing the episode with its director, Frederick E.O. Toye, I came to appreciate how those final moments for a beloved character were crafted. And on top of that, Mr. Toye shared some interesting stories about its production, among which was an account of the time a positive COVID test almost derailed the entire episode.
Let’s Talk About Shogun’s Spoiler Death From Chapter Nine - ‘Crimson Sky’
Consider this your final spoiler warning for Shōgun’s “Crimson Sky” episode, which saw the death of the honorable Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai). While she survived challenging the guards of Lord Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira), and narrowly avoided committing seppuku, it was one final twist that sealed her fate.
In order to avoid capture, Mariko stood in front of the door that the shinobi sent to capture her were about to blow up. Closing out the penultimate episode, Mariko’s defiance in the face of her captor delivered her to the death she’d been begging for over the years.
It was certainly a moment that landed with a huge impact, as some Shōgun viewers were probably as stunned and upset as John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis). However, both this ending, and Anna Sawai’s favorite Shōgun battle scene with Mariko fighting for her freedom, presented some interesting wrinkles of their own.
The COVID Test That Almost Derailed Shogun Episode 9
Let’s start with that Naginata fight that saw Mariko-sama making what looked like the first of her three potential final stands. As CinemaBlend was given the opportunity to speak with director Frederick E.O. Toye about his work directing Shōgun, the discussion favored his work on the final two episodes of the season’s run.
And in recalling how Anna Sawai’s huge sendoff came together, the veteran television helmer tipped his hat to one of his fellow directors on the project, Takeshi Fukunaga. That tribute was paid thanks to his assistance when the following COVID test scenario presented itself:
I have to give credit to Takeshi, who directed Episode 7, because Takeshi filled in for me during one of those days of shooting that scene. … The long story that I'll cut short is that me and the DP, Sam McCurdy, had caught COVID during the Naginata fight. So we had the whole sequence pre-storyboarded and pre-vis, and Lauro had blocked it all out. And on a Monday [or Friday], I think Sam got the positive test. And then on Monday, I got a positive test.
Admittedly, there’s never a good time to catch COVID, but even worse if we’re looking at the viewpoint of a director for Shōgun, coming down with that nastiness during the production of the second-to-last story in the ten-episode series. Thankfully, technology and the assistance of director Takeshi Fukunaga came to the rescue, as Fredrick Toye would mention further along in our talk:
I was directing from a hotel room, just like I'm in now. And during the Naginata scene where she's trying to escape, I had the monitors from the set on the television screen in the hotel room, plus a radio, talking to the assistant director, and two Zoom meetings. One Zoom meeting with the camera operator … and another Zoom meeting with a gal named Crystal, who was one of our production assistants on set, walking me around and talking to the actors with an iPad. So I actually was on an iPad directing the action sequence in the castle, during the escape scene.
All told, Frederick E.O. Toye claimed that he was gone for three days of the seven that it took to capture Mariko’s Shōgun showdown. But if there was a greater challenge, it’s capturing Anna Sawai’s big death scene. Especially when those final heroic moments almost looked a lot different!
How The Death Of Mariko Was Almost Depicted In Shogun
The final moment of “Chapter Nine - Crimson Sky” happens in a literal flash. As soon as the explosion takes out Toda Mariko, the episode basically ends with that scene as the cliffhanger to Shōgun’s finale, “Chapter Ten - A Dream of a Dream.” But as Frederick E.O. Toye was preparing to shoot the moment, ideas on how he’d play with everything from the sound to the room’s reaction to that moment were on the table; which led to this initial approach to shooting Mariko’s death:
So I had done this shot, and I'm really glad that it's not in the show, but I had done this shot with a Phantom camera, which is a camera that shoots at like 1200 frames per second. So super, super slow motion. And we were filming on her, the actual moment of explosion, of when [the door] explodes. And I wanted to sort of suspend time.
Just as Shōgun valued authentically capturing Japanese culture, all involved also wanted to stay loyal to the emotional stakes that had been set up throughout the entire season before. That approach in particular helped reshape the sacrifice of Mariko, which meant scrapping that slow motion shot that Toye had originally planned. Rethinking things through that lens, here’s why Fred and the team decided to scrap what they’d done:
It was cool, but it didn't work in context because I think Justin [Marks] and Rachel [Kondo] and all the team, when they saw it in context, it was far more powerful to have it be subtle, to just have it be, in a way, the sacrifice. … You don't want to extend that moment because the inevitability of it has been laid out for several episodes. This entire episode, and her performance in that episode, is about the inevitability of this sacrifice. It had to happen. So by the time you get to it, it's not about suspending time. It's about the reality of it, the immediacy of it.
Framing this shot of Shōgun wasn’t all for naught though, as Frederick Toye and the powers that be found even more of the emotional core of the moment in its execution. And in the final part of Frederick’s story about capturing this massive moment, he shared a funny story about how Anna Sawai’s birthday offered an opportunity to play a good natured prank.
How Frederick E.O. Toye Was ‘Complicit’ In Ruining Anna Sawai’s Birthday With That Unused Shot
Many people would probably say that they’d rather not work on their birthday, and who can really blame them? Shōgun’s Anna Sawai apparently didn’t have that option, since her birthday happened to be the day of shooting Toda Mariko’s final farewell. Keep that in mind as you read this final section about how the most unlikely of celebrations took place during a moment of death:
It happened to have been her birthday on that day. And so the shot was a phantom camera, super slow motion with her reacting. It's the same camera we used for the arrow in episode five, you know, so, so super slow motion, you're gonna die. This is it. And we had a big air cannon blasting at her face. And so it was like, it's a huge thing. Like the camera's really loud, everything, so it was like ready in 3, 2, 1, and then we were like, happy birthday. And we brought the cake out, like in that moment. And it was like the meanest thing you could do to somebody, especially as an actor. And I was completely complicit in this idea to destroy her birthday, with a slow motion camera shot of her death.
Shows like Sh?gun are usually terribly serious affairs, which means that letting off steam on set is usually important. After learning about the various obstacles and one massive prank that helped make “Chapter Nine - Crimson Sky” as fantastic as it is, that lesson seems more important than ever. While the future past the finale is yet to be seen, the entire run of FX’s latest hit serious has been a thing of beauty, even in the darkest of times.
If you’re ready to finish the journey, or to trace the entire path from square one, you can do just that. All ten episodes of Shōgun are currently available for those who hold a Hulu subscription. Just be ready to question what the words “Crimson Sky” truly mean once you’ve reached the end.
