Shōgun (miniseries)
| Shōgun | |
|---|---|
Shōgun titles
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| Based on | Shōgun (1975) by James Clavell |
| Screenplay by | Eric Bercovici |
| Story by | James Clavell |
| Directed by | Jerry London |
| Starring |
Richard Chamberlain Toshiro Mifune Yoko Shimada Damien Thomas John Rhys-Davies |
| Composer(s) |
Maurice Jarre Richard Bowden (arranger) |
| Country of origin | USA, Japan |
| Original language(s) | English, Japanese |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Eric Bercovici Ben Chapman James Clavell Kerry Feltham |
| Cinematography | Andrew Laszlo |
| Running time | 547 min. 125 minutes (theatrical version) |
| Production company(s) |
National Broadcasting Company Paramount Television British Broadcasting Corporation |
| Distributor | Paramount Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | 1980 – 1980 |
Shōgun is an American television miniseries based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell, who also was the executive producer of the miniseries. It was first broadcast in the United States on NBC over five nights between September 15 and September 19, 1980. To date[update], it is the only American television production to be filmed on location entirely in Japan, with additional sound stage filming also taking place in Japan at the Toho studio.
The miniseries is loosely based on the adventures of English navigator William Adams, who journeyed to Japan in 1600 and rose to high rank in the service of the shōgun. The miniseries follows fictional Englishman John Blackthorne's transforming experiences and political intrigues in feudal Japan in the early 17th century.
After his Dutch trading ship Erasmus and its surviving crew is blown ashore by a violent storm at Anjiro on the east coast of Japan, Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, the ship's English navigator, is taken prisoner by samurai warriors. When he is later temporarily released, he must juggle his self-identity as an Englishman associated with other Europeans in Japan, namely Portuguese traders and Jesuit priests, with the alien Japanese culture into which he has been thrust and now must adapt to in order to survive. Being an Englishman, Blackthorne is at both religious and political odds with his enemy, the Portuguese, and the Catholic Church's Jesuit order. The Catholic foothold in Japan puts Blackthorne, a Protestant and therefore a heretic, at a political disadvantage. But this same situation also brings him to the attention of the influential Lord Toranaga, who mistrusts this foreign religion now spreading in Japan. He is competing with other samurai warlords of similar high-born rank, among them Catholic converts, for the very powerful position of Shōgun, the military governor of Japan.
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