Shōgun review: Cosmo Jarvis channels his inner Tom Hardy in a show that might be the next Game of Thrones
Sh??gun: a title used for the military dictators of Japan from the 12th to the late 19th century. There were sh??guns during the lifetimes of both Richard the Lionheart and Marie Curie. It is a title that evokes an age when Japan was separated from the rest of the world, not just by the roiling East Asian seas, but by religion, economics, and, most importantly, culture. It is an era of samurai and seppuku, of courtesans and katanas, and one that is brought vividly to life in a new series, Sh??gun, from writers Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks.
The year is 1600. Britain is staggering towards the end of the Elizabethan era, but on the other side of the world a loyal Protestant sailor finds himself washed up on the inhospitable shores of Japan. This pilot (or Anjin as his Japanese hosts call him) is John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis). Far from a Robinson Crusoe story of isolated survival against the odds, what proceeds is a journey to the heart of the Japanese imperial court. The land’s ruler – the Taiko – has been dead a year and his heir has not come of age. The lords ruling as stewards in his stead are grumbling. On one side is shrewd, ruthless Ishido (Takehiro Hira) and, on the other, wise, gentle Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). It is Toronaga who smells opportunity, in the form of this bedraggled, foul-mouthed Englishman, to spread discord amongst the country’s Christian lords, who are under the thumb of the Portuguese, the sole European power in the region.
What Blackthorne encounters in Japan is a world both wholly unlike his own, and entirely familiar. The coveted title of sh??gun mirrors the dynastic challenges of Tudor England, while for every time he labels one of the natives a “savage”, they brand him a “barbarian”. The Europeans who have settled in the East – from Néstor Carbonell’s navigator Rodrigues to Tommy Bastow’s thoughtful monk, Father Martin – have acquired a respect for this enigmatic society. But nothing confuses the Europeans – who have fought the raging seas of the south Atlantic, not to mention scurvy and other pestilence, to cross the world – more than the Japanese attitude to death. It is the principle of shukumei. “Fixed destiny,” Rodrigues explains to Blackthorne, “you just have to accept your place.” And so, with events largely beyond his control, this English interloper does just that.
Arriving with limited fanfare on Disney+, Sh??gun shows no signs of under-investment. Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell (which was previously adapted for television back in 1980), it might lack the baked-in fanbase of George RR Martin (I visited three London bookshops this week looking for a copy of Clavell’s 1,000-page tome; none had it in stock) but receives a similarly lavish treatment. From a cast featuring some of Japan’s most famous faces – both Sanada and Anna Sawai, who plays translator Mariko, will be familiar to Western audiences too – to an intricate recreation of feudal Osaka, Disney is sparing no expense.
Cynically, Sh??gun might be seen as an attempt by Disney to make in-roads in a lucrative Asian market, especially after the debacle of their live-action remake of Mulan in 2020, which drew stinging critiques from Chinese viewers. Tokyo Disneyland is, after all, already the world’s fourth biggest amusement park. But the 10-part series is far more than a sop to new viewers. It is a brave retelling of a complex, intricate tale, drawn from a combination of Japanese history and Clavell’s encyclopaedic interest in the country. Most of the dialogue unfolds in Japanese (though English is substituted for Portuguese), something that is rare in blockbuster television, and for all that people are boiled alive, decapitated or shredded by musket fire, much of Sh??gun unfolds in quiet, philosophical conversations. Toronaga calls this title of sh??gun a “brutal relic from a bygone era”, capturing this moment of transition between feudalism and modernity.
As Blackthorne, Jarvis does an admirable job of channelling his inner Tom Hardy. Both burly and foppish, Blackthorne is rendered as the stark opposite to his captors. Will he become more like them, or they like him? Through his relationships with Toronaga (embodied with quiet restraint by Sanada) and Mariko (an enchanting doe-eyed Sawai), Blackthorne observes the twilight days of Japanese independence from the world. “I think fate has brought us together,” Toronaga tells Mariko. “You, me and this barbarian.” As a central trio, they are as well-balanced creatively as they are in their narrative purpose.
The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, The Last of Us: many shows in the past few years have shot for the title of “the next Game of Thrones”. In Sh??gun, Disney+ might just have picked a winner. With more sex and violence than the service’s usual fare, it’s an ambitious deviation. But this well-paced and considered saga will reward grown-up viewers and prove that there’s still room for a historical epic among the elves, dragons and zombies of big-budget telly.
‘Sh??gun’ is streaming now on Disney+
