nelsonmuntz
Point Center
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 44,281
- Reaction Score
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Making the rounds on Encore this summer.
I love this miniseries. Pretty close to the book, which is pretty close to actual events in early 17th century Japan. The political play was incredibly important both in the book and real life. Torunaga (Tokugawa in real life) was able to turn a lot of Ishida's army against him prior to the batter, so the climactic battle was in a sense decided before it was fought, despite Ishida having the bigger army.
Really good historical fiction like Shogun provides insight into the human impact rather than just give a litany of events. Japan was struggling with its own interminable civil wars, and culture that was fighting any attempt at modernization, and incredible fear from the first interactions with Europeans. The leadership of the Japanese realized the power that these little European nations could wield if they were able to send people thousands of miles away on boats.
The most interesting aspect of the book and the movie to me is that Japan would have probably been better off if Tokugawa had lost.
I love this miniseries. Pretty close to the book, which is pretty close to actual events in early 17th century Japan. The political play was incredibly important both in the book and real life. Torunaga (Tokugawa in real life) was able to turn a lot of Ishida's army against him prior to the batter, so the climactic battle was in a sense decided before it was fought, despite Ishida having the bigger army.
Really good historical fiction like Shogun provides insight into the human impact rather than just give a litany of events. Japan was struggling with its own interminable civil wars, and culture that was fighting any attempt at modernization, and incredible fear from the first interactions with Europeans. The leadership of the Japanese realized the power that these little European nations could wield if they were able to send people thousands of miles away on boats.
The most interesting aspect of the book and the movie to me is that Japan would have probably been better off if Tokugawa had lost.