Ridley Scott ought to direct a flim version of Shogun. http://www.onwardjames.blogspot.com/2012/02/shogun-james-clavell-thirty-three-years.html
Considering that they took the novel and turned it into a 9+ hour miniseries that was filmed entirely on location in Japan, I think they did a remarkably good job of it! Actually, I hope they don't remake it - they'd probably add too many CGI effects and ruin it.
I saw the miniseries back when it was on NBC, then read the book later. As I recall, the miniseries was pretty faithful to the book - there wasn't a lot of missing plot or missing characters.
Yeah- I think the miniseries format is the only way to capture the vastness of the novel. It was a decent interpretation, Richard Chamberlain was a good fit. Shogun was probably the first novel I completely could not put down. Read it in like 3 days- very little sleep.
Me too.. I read the book after seeing the miniseries. I read a couple of Clavel's other books.. Gai Jin and Noblehouse. They were all great.
No question it was impressive to shoot in Japan, particulalry in an area were typhoons hit. They finished in time. However, the music was too much TV oriented. There times no music was needed, sometimes the director did just that. The writer decided to make the series from John Blackthorne's eyes. Chamberlain was in practiclaly every scene. A stretch. There are more reasons I do not find the TV mini-series to be A-One. Nontheless, I enjoyed it. And it's better than a lot of the crap on TV and cable etc. And remember less is more. Two three-hour movies with action, such as in the novel would be, for my taste, as good if not better. But the book is A-One even if some critics do not find it a literary masterpiece. A good story, in my opinion, is much more interesting than constant imagery and flowing words which come across as poetic prose. And, after one finishes the laborious paragraph, or page, one has to return to find out what the hell it was about.
So... I have started re-reading Shogun, many years later. A major problem with the mini-series that should have been shown. Blackthorne's Erasmus had 500 muskets on board, a huge amount of powder and balls, 20 cannons, 5000 canon balls, wealth, silver, goblets, etc. The stuff was unloaded and secretly kept by one of the local leaders. There were plenty of weapons to support a war. The leader could have easily turned on his leader and gone with the otherside. Which he does, eventually. This was crucial information, necessary at the beginning. Blackthorne was a pirate of sorts, as considered by the Spaniards and Portugese. But not by England, of course. However, Blackthorne could have been a threat to Toranaga and was for the Jesuits and Portugese sailors. And the ship wasn't just for escape. The sailors were rich, but promised even more. They had enough weapons to create havoc, too. Attack coastal villages. A director who knows key ingredients would have made the audience aware of this, the urgency, and deceit by Japnaese leaders with their own tribes. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the epic novel.
