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TOTAL WAR
SHŌGUN The blockbuster historical saga gets an ambitious 2024 update.
As if it isn’t hard enough making a 10-hour epic with sieges, swordfights and shipwrecks, the makers of Shōgun also had to deal with bears trying to eat their sandwiches. ‘One day a black bear got into the craft service line,’ laughs writer/creator Justin Marks. ‘We had a 3,000-strong cast and crew. We were at war with the elements. But every day it was “Bear, bear, bear!” over the radio.’
Rebuilding an entire feudal Japanese fishing village on a remote coast of Vancouver, Marks – alongside co-writer and creator (and wife), Rachel Kondo – took on one of the most ambitious adaptations in historical fiction bringing James Clavell’s 1975 hefty bestseller to the screen.
‘I think we’re both of the generation where Shōgun was a book on everyone’s parents’ nightstand,’ says Marks. ‘We all understood what it stands for. But I knew there were aspects that needed updating. It became the cardinal sin that we didn’t want to commit: to tell a story that we’ve already seen before.’
Framed around the (real) battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and the rise of the daimyō Toranaga, the sprawling saga was last filmed in 1980 as a miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune. But for Marks and
Kondo, the big mistake made back then was in showing everything through the eyes of Chamberlain’s shipwrecked English sailor, John Blackthorne (now played by Cosmo Jarvis).
‘It had to feel authentic, but it had to feel original’
JUSTIN MARKS
‘This was an opportunity for me to connect with my Japanese heritage,’ says Kondo. ‘You’re in the hands of a master storyteller with James Clavell, but we wanted to take the Blackthorne character and diffuse him into the ensemble; to give him the same weight we gave Toranaga [Hiroyuki Sanada] and Mariko [Anna Sawai].’
‘You have to let the wind make the show,’ adds Marks, speaking of giving way to the real elements that battered the set, as well as the way the series evolved with its cast and crew. ‘It had to feel authentic, but it had to feel original. To create a style that was imitative of any traditional jidaigeki Samurai story would feel like we were donning a costume that didn’t belong to us. We didn’t want this to feel like the lobby of a Japanese restaurant.’
But with authenticity comes the challenge – bringing Marks back to the expansive battle scenes (and bears) that made the nine-month shoot so gruelling. ‘I remember the night we were shooting in the woods with horses, snow, arrows and fire, and just walking through the set and feeling like I was in the bridge scene of Apocalypse Now,’ he laughs. ‘It was punishing. But it was what we needed to do to transport the audience. It was the only way to tell this story.’
SHŌGUN STREAMS ON DISNEY+ FROM 27 FEBRUARY.