Shogun

 

A friend and I have been exchanging thoughts about FX's Shōgun streaming on Hulu. He tells me he is fascinated by the symbolism of the various tokens passed among the main characters -- samurai swords and game birds, among them -- and what the program creators are saying with such cryptic markers. I agreed and told him I find especially intriguing how opaque the characters are -- their motives hidden behind clouds of deception, ego or tradition. With so many years -- more than 40 -- having passed since the original television adaptation of Clavell's 1975 novel, it is quite likely the story will be unexplored territory for many viewers ... which serves this latest elaborate entry quite well. Shōgun is best enjoyed, I believe, when the full intentions of the story's many characters are as murky as Japan's foggy coastline. Yes, the "mission" of the Jesuits and their Portuguese musclemen seems clear, if not entirely godly, but is it? And survival seems to be the prime motivation of the sea wise British navigator who is fiercely loyal to his aging Protestant monarch but might be moved even more by greed. And the motives among the Council of Regents seems pretty apparent, but might be revealed more by what is not said than what is. And the subservience of the trussed and obi-ed courtesans might come across a tad cagey considering many are more ingenious than the men they are bound to, but I suspect there is a great deal more underfoot, like the shifting tectonic plates that threaten to lay waste to all life. Wonderful stuff!