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How ‘Shōgun’ Found Its Way – Behind The Scenes On FX’s Hit With Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, And Tadanobu Asano


'Shogun' stars Tadanobu Asano, Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada find the heart in Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo's reimagining of the Japanese classic.

It was not long ago that Sawai, at a turning point in her own burgeoning career, asked the question on everyone’s mind in her first meeting with Shōgun creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo: “Why do you want to remake this?” Clavell’s novel, based on feudal Japanese history, sold 7 million copies decades prior and had been, either famously or infamously, adapted into a 1980 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune, spinoff video games, and even a stage musical, inspiring countless Hollywood derivatives that centered white saviors at the expense of Asian characters. There’s the feared Toranaga, whose political rivals plot against him on the Council of Regents, formed to govern until the late Taikō ’s heir comes of age; the many warlords, vassals, and opportunists whose self-serving agendas threaten a precarious peace; the Portuguese traders and Jesuit priests conniving to strengthen their foothold in Japan as religious wars rage on in Europe. And, the two other lead protagonists of Shōgun: Mariko, the loyal survivor of a disgraced lineage who has found salvation in the Catholic faith but is still searching for her purpose; and bewildered sea pilot Blackthorne, the fish out of water ‘Anjin’ who shipwrecks on Toranaga’s shores with a Dutch vessel and is quick to judge the Japanese way of life before undergoing his own paradigm-shifting journey of understanding.

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