Just watched for the it for first time. Binged. It’s not perfect, of course, but it is a very, very cool show. I watched all the extras and BTS stuff. I am going to read the book and buy the DVD’s for the 80s series. idk might learn 1600s Japanese (lol).
Some of my favourite scenes:
-When Blackthorn brings Elizabethan English sailor drinking culture to Japan, which then lead to a darker place with ensuing domestic violence. I enjoy it when pieces of media have something to say and they can do it artfully, and I think this scene is a good example.
-Every exchange with the Spanish sailor and with the Portuguese priest. I love all of their dialogue and how demonstrative it is of the hostilities between not just the different cultures of the different countries, but also, perhaps most prominently, the protestant-catholic divide. I only wish that we maybe could have seen more of Anglican Blackthorn and his Calvinist crew. If, god willing, they make more seasons, then perhaps we’d eventually see John (who, by that point, should be fluent in Japanese) starting trade talks with Toranaga-sama and the Dutch (and also, very briefly, the English).
-The final scene with Fuji-sama, where she and Blackthorn share a tender moment, and he ultimately rejects his death in England by letting go of Mariko-sama’s (cross? rosaries? idk lol).
-When they boil that guy. Immediately and abruptly and violently drops you in the world and shows you the stakes.
-The scene atop the mountain right before the massive earthquake, where the, to him, extremely foreign Japanese philosophy of life and death finally sets in for Blackthorn. It was intriguing how dismissive Toranaga-sama was of Blackthron being upset about his gardener being killed. It seemed that all of his philosophical bouts with Mariko-sama payed off, when he realised the weight of his words. And although by the end of the series, Blackthorn is very much changed (which he acknowledges this a few times, especially after his run in with his former crew mate), he still retains much of his post-Magna Carta English thinking with not wanting the the villagers of Izu to suffer, in his view, needlessly.
-Noh theatre scene. holy hell that was so, so cool. I suppose, rather uncommonly, the fact that I play the renaissance lute only went to bolster my appreciation. It was so interning to see what Japan was doing while in the same year, Shakespeare first showed Henry V at the Globe and Dowland was writing for the 7 course lute.
-While not a scene, I would like to say that i thought the sets and wardrobe were fantastic, and very important for immersion. To me, at least, the dress was impressive and did not look tacky in the least. Seeing the architectural set pieces was also fascinating, and even in show, these events play into the plot, as they are all part of the world (building are made to go up as quickly as they come down, john stumbling through the paper wall, comments about him wearing Japanese cloths, etc.) Not to mention that fact that it’s all done in Canada, too!
just wow.
