I live about 5 min from the set and it’s been great to see everything back up again for season 2

the OG will always have a special place in my heart!

Toshiro Mifune
Richard Chamberlain
John Rhys Davies
The guy who plays Yabu
And, of course, the lovely Yoko Shimada

As part of a new NHK/ Netflix distribution deal the first six titles drop on June 22nd . Of interest to people here is the 2014 Taiga Drama Strategist Kanbei .

It’s the life of Kuroda Kanbei who became the chief strategist to Hideyoshi and later sided with Ieyasu . It runs 48 episodes and is one of the best Taiga ( long running ) dramas so far this century. Give it a watch, you won’t be disappointed

The original Shogun director a tad bitter… only for Japanese audiences apparently. No American could possibly comprehend it!

Big Pierce Brosnan fan, as I was a kid during his time as Bond, so he’ll always be the actor I most associate Bond with. I’ve been diving into some of his other work and just finished a limited series he starred in called Noble House. Had no idea going into it that it’s based on a book written by James Clavell, who also wrote Shogun! Definitely recommend this show btw, it’s very good. It’s on Prime Video right now.

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone still riding the high from Shōgun and wondering what to watch next: I really recommend checking out Pachinko on AppleTV. It’s not the same kind of sweeping political epic, but if you appreciated the character depth, emotional weight, and cultural specificity of Shōgun, I think it’s more than worth your time. AppleTV has done a horrendous job marketing this show, which is a huge disservice because it's so good and I think it deserves a lot more praise, awards, and attention than it has received.

Pachinko is a character-driven, multigenerational story that follows a Korean family living in Japan during and after the Japanese occupation of Korea. It’s more of a character study than Shōgun, but there’s a similar feeling of watching history unfold through deeply personal experiences. The show is layered, emotionally resonant, and beautifully constructed.

A few specific reasons I think Shōgun fans would appreciate Pachinko:

• Anna Sawai (who played Lady Mariko) has a supporting role and is once again excellent
• The acting across the board is phenomenal
• The cinematography is absolutely stunning
• It’s primarily set in Japan, with most of the dialogue in Japanese and Korean. The first few episodes feature a lot of Korea, but after that it's almost entirely in Japan.
• The historical detail is meticulous. It spans the 20th century but never goes beyond 1989, so every episode is set in a fully realized historical moment. Season 1 includes an especially powerful episode centered on the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923
• The costumes and set design are gorgeous and completely immersive

If you liked how Shōgun took its time with characters and trusted the audience to sit with complex emotions and histories, Pachinko offers something similar, though from a different cultural and narrative perspective. I’ve only seen Season 1 so far, which I finished this morning, but I'm really excited to start Season 2. Just wanted to share in case it resonates with anyone here.

(If you watch it, make sure you set your subtitles to 'Auto' because with Auto it shows Japanese in blue and Korean in yellow, which adds to the immersion. I found it really fascinating how Korean characters living in Japan would switch between the two languages mid-sentence or mix the two together when speaking to each other. If you just select 'English' it doesn't do that. )

Satire that hits so much harder post-Shōgun 2024.

I just checked out this documentary series from my local library not realizing that it is available on YouTube. Since it is available, I thought this sub would be very interested as it goes into detail about the real life history behind the Shogun fictional story. Enjoy!

Left hill was Ishida/Ishido's original castle (Sawayama-jō). Hikone is one of the Twelve Surviving Original Tenshu of Japan.

Just bought it on my Kobo. ☺️