Shogun

nobby35

Does anyone remember the mini series "Shogun" .I think it starred Richard chamberlin.I recently came across a copy of the book and would really recomend it .

Pigman II

Someone gave me the DVD's recently. I found it quite boring.

nobby35

Thats a pity because the book is a real epic .Wont bother with the DVD's then .thanks

keefg

Pigman II wrote: »

Someone gave me the DVD's recently. I found it quite boring.

I agree, I saw some re-runs of this on Sky somewhere and like most shows from way back when it was terrible.

I did however enjoy this when I was a kid and now I think I know why.....my under-developed brain just tuned out all the crappy love story and all the political poo and just concentrated on the battle scenes and Jap lads fighting with big swords wearing funny outfits.

I was 9 when this was on telly and had no idea what a Samurai was but by the Power Of Greyskull I wanted to be one.

Davedubh

This was on when i was about ten.I remember a scene with one of the english sailors being boiled in a pot.

ruadhri44

I remember Shogun too. It was a huge hit at the time. Was originally to star Sean Connery but he was too busy so it went to Richard Chamberlain.

Also Yoko Shimada who starred opposite Chamberlain at the time could not speak English even though she speaks English in almost every scene so she had to learn her lines phonetically.

It was based loosely on the true story of an English sailor called William Adams who reached Japan in the year 1600.

jupiterjack

i remember it well..

mikemac1

Watched it last year

I never heard of the main actor but I knew John Rhys Davies

Incredible hype over this series, it's pretty famous

I thought it was fairly tedious, stuck with it and watched to the end

ruadhri44

mikemac1 wrote: »

Watched it last year

I never heard of the main actor but I knew John Rhys Davies

Incredible hype over this series, it's pretty famous

I thought it was fairly tedious, stuck with it and watched to the end

I thought it was great. Never heard of Richard Chamberlain? Doctor Kildare, The Three Musketeers, Petula, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Thorn Birds, the original Bourne Identity. You must be the only person on earth never to have heard of him. Granted hes not as big as he was but hes made a come back in resent years.

John Rhys Davis is always good as is Mifune Toshiro and Shimada Yoko.

mikemac1

ruadhri44 wrote: »

You must be the only person on earth never to have heard of him.

Bit strong

Dr Kildare was back in the sixties, most of the others were in the seventies

Nope, before my time

I checked out Shogun as I like the genre and it was very famous and well known

But I wasn't familiar with Chamberlain and realy, nothing strange about that

ruadhri44

Guess I am starting to show my age then.

bullets

I loved Shogun, Have the DVD box set at home,
and I 've the book someplace too.

I had the paperback book 1st Edition from James Clavell which as a Kid was the thickest book I had ever seen. The Book was a great read.

Secret Love affairs, cross dressing, expert archers shooting through paper walls, training armies, deception, decapitation, urinating on people, boiling people alive, Tsunami's, Ninja's, Corrupt Priests, it had everything in it.

Years later they made some other rubbish film with Tom Cruise in it
with appeared to be along the same storyline as Shogun.

~B

ruadhri44

bullets wrote: »

I loved Shogun, Have the DVD box set at home,
and I 've the book someplace too.

I had the paperback book 1st Edition from James Clavell which as a Kid was the thickest book I had ever seen. The Book was a great read.

Secret Love affairs, cross dressing, expert archers shooting through paper walls, training armies, deception, decapitation, urinating on people, boiling people alive, Tsunami's, Ninja's, Corrupt Priests, it had everything in it.

Years later they made some other rubbish film with Tom Cruise in it
with appeared to be along the same storyline as Shogun.

~B

I thought The Last Samurai was rather good.

Lawrence1895

I remember the scene, where the ship's crew was imprisoned in some kind of hole, and they got buckets of rotten fish thrown at them. It was in the first episode.

Yuk :pac:

rugbyman

Read the book, over 30 years ago, rivetting, took two days off work to finish it. Friend and I still address each other as Anjin San and Buntaro san.
read tai pan, noble house and one set in iraq as follow ups

Regards Rugbyman

AllGunsBlazing

Saw it first time round as a youngster and watched a rerun on the satellite about two years ago. Yes, the acting and sets can at times be quite cheesy, but I still enjoyed it.

Some really great tv mini series came out around that time. The Thorn Birds was another one that had Chamberlain in it.

Thomas828

"Shogun" is the first book of more than 300 pages that I ever finished. (I'm a slow reader) And you're right. It really is an epic. I'd say that to make a really good adaptations for TV you'd need a series of more than just ten hours. I wasn't really taken with the mini series even though it had Mifune Toshiro as Toranaga-sama in it. (I'd seen him first in "The Seven Samurai")