When Shogun Came to America
I was 14 years old when Shogun first aired here in the United States. As I remember that week – everybody was enthralled by it. It was the talk of the town, at least in my area of the world. Because of the way my birthday falls, I was nearly a whole year older than the kids I grew up with in school. November babies often had to wait for the next year before we were allowed to start in the school system – even though we missed our age mates by only about a month.
So I was in the 8th grade during that week – middle school. Every day while it aired, kids discussed what had occurred the night before. Toward the end of the series, I remember sitting behind three of my female classmates in homeroom when the subject of the best character in the series came up.
They were going on about Blackthorne – which I guess is not terribly surprising. I spoke up and said that I thought Omi san (played by Yuki Meguro) was the best character. As I remember my thoughts back then, I was fascinated with the background story of Omi san and Kiku san. I was quite frustrated that there was so little screen time given to that plot line.
At any rate, at some point that morning I expressed my thoughts to my classmates that Omi san was the strongest character. I think the conversation went roughly like this:
Classmates 1, 2 and 3: Blah, blah, blah John Blackthorne!!!
Me: Omi san was better.
Classmate 1: John Blackthorne is the strongest. He is the hero!
Classmate 2: He’s good looking and he is very brave.
Classmate 1: He’s the hero! And Mariko falls in love with him!
Classmate 3: He’s the best…
*pause*
Me: Omi san is the strongest, because he made John Blackthorne lay on the ground while he pissed on his back. Omi san pissed on John Blackthorne and Blackthorne had to lay there and take it.
*silence*
If I remember this correctly at all – the conversation ended that day and it was never discussed again.
This is the only YouTube video I’ve been able to find that features Omi san:
Comments
As an impressionable young boy who never watched anything remotely Japanese before other than anime, I thought to myself, "This sh!t's crazy... show me more!"
But then my parents were horrified at that particular scene and told me to get my ass to bed. I never watched the rest of the mini-series.
"Helter Skelter" - so much damage over what turns out to be a playground slide.
I also remember that people tuned into "Masada" when it came out later because they enjoyed "Shogun" so much. I recall one of my adult relatives saying that he thought we were going to be getting one of these epic historical miniseries every year which I was pretty excited about. Of course, times change and the quality went downhill, so...
I've heard that there was some tension between the Japanese and the American film crews - but that doesn't surprise me knowing the social/cultural differences in how things should be approached.
This was one of Toshiro Mifune's efforts to bring his work across the waters. He was supposed to be a major part of another ambitious collaboration between Japan and America (was Toho involved? Now I can't remember) - "Tora Tora Tora". Unfortunately, because of his falling out with Kurosawa earlier, he rejected the opportunity. He ended up doing "Midway" instead.
Kurosawa ended up pulling out as well soon after filming started because he conflicted with the America style of movie making.
I've wanted the DVD for quite some time now but money is always tight for luxuries. I used to price these things when they were first available on VHS but back then all of my favorite movies were over $100...and "Shogun" was impossibly priced. I remember seeing that dramatic black box with the red title and the gold mon in the center in this little local video place and I would sigh every time. The owner only had that one copy - I sometimes wonder who he finally sold it to. He always had it on prominent display on a shelf above the counter.
I'm a little disappointed when I read the reviews of the extras on DVD. Considering how important this series was for opening all sorts of doors, I would have thought they could have really made more effort in that area.