A new drama quietly won the best reputation of American dramas since the beginning of the year.
Without beating around the corner, "Shogun".
Rotten Tomatoes has a 100% freshness, audience popcorn is 96%, and IMDB scores are as high as 94。
The opening word-of-mouth of the divine drama, even the seeded players of American dramas such as "True Detective 4" and "Air Combat Heroes" are far from being its opponents.
But somewhat unexpectedly, this is a Japanese conspiracy historical drama invested by Disney and filmed and produced by FX. The story is just before the famous Battle of Sekigahara in Japanese history.
Once upon a time, standing at the top of the world's historical dramas was a well-deserved domestic historical drama.
If many old viewers recall now, at least one of their favorite 5 national dramas must be historical dramas.
In the history of national dramas, there are too many famous historical dramas.
There are imperial dramas, such as "Yongzheng Dynasty", "Kangxi Dynasty", "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty" and "Great Qin Empire".
There are historical dramas with profound themes such as "Ming Dynasty 1566" and "The Granary of the World", whose stories are exquisite, the acting skills are wonderful, and the themes are decisive, and the historical dramas of any other country are absolutely beyond reach.
However, domestic historical dramas have not had a decent work for many years.
The reason for this is that it is still difficult, not only is the script difficult to write, the investment is large, and it is even more difficult to shoot, which is far less light than the creation of ancient puppet dramas and short plays.
But when domestic entertainment and the audience abandoned historical dramas far away, American dramas gnawed on this hard bone.
Shogun", based on the 1975 eponym**, is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu and the British navigator William Adams, who became a samurai in Japan.
The original book was made into a popular drama series in 1980, and the reputation is not low, but the first two episodes of this 10-episode miniseries launched by FX have been launched on Disney+, and the word-of-mouth still greatly exceeds the original.
The Douban score also reached 83 points.
Starring, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai ("Fast and Furious 9"), Cosmo Jarvis, Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, etc.
Is it really that good-looking?
However, the reputation of mainland audiences is somewhat polarized.
There are those who complain, thinking that it is just an opportunistic work to interpret the history of the East from the perspective of Westerners, and they don't understand the shogunate at all.
I like it, and think that the show is well-made, with exquisite details, and a seamless blend of intrigue, humor, love and action.
The Japanese actors' acting skills are outstanding, with the tension and rhythm of American dramas, the scenes and special effects can be seen to burn money, and with FX's usual yellow storm killing, in short, it can be called wonderful.
In my opinion, the drama is indeed Zuo Zongtang's chicken from a Western perspective, but it is indeed authentic.
So, is it possible for this drama to become a classic of Japanese costume dramas filmed in Hollywood, and will it become the "king of American dramas" with the first reputation this year?
After finishing 2 episodes in one go, this will take everyone to ** after all.
The entry point of "Shogun" is unexpected-a foreigner's perspective.
The story is set in Japan in 1600, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has just died, and the Battle of Sekigahara is coming.
Faced with the enemies of the five elders uniting against him, Tokugawa Ieyasu, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, is trying to compete in the world.
At this moment, a mysterious European ship is found stranded in a fishing village near Izu, and the ship's British pilot, John Blackthorne (played by Kirsmo Jarvis), brings secrets that may help him turn the balance of power.
Warring States Japan, Battle of Sekigahara. There are advantages and difficulties in this cut-in.
The advantage is that this history is not unfamiliar to many viewers.
Especially for many Nioh players, it's a treasure.
And the male protagonist of this play is the prototype of the protagonist of "Nioh 1".
But the disadvantage is that the audience is too familiar.
How should the story be told so that people can watch it? Do you want to incorporate power schemes, history, the various social conditions of Japan at the time, human feelings, customs, political situation, and power struggles?
The story handling of "Shogun" brings out a completely different temperament from the Japanese Taiga drama.
One opening, three big plays, laying the overall situation.
In the first game, Ieyasu entered the game.
This game is the duel between the five elders of Osaka Castle, and more precisely, the trial of the other four elders against Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The series rewrites the names of the main historical figures, Toranagu, based on the historical figure Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Taiko, i.e. Hideyoshi.
Ishido, undoubtedly based on Ishida Mitsunari.
Cha Cha should be the character played by Fumi Nikaido, the square of falling leaves, which is also the younger sister who played this role again after the Taihe drama "Military Division Kanbei".
Tokugawa Ieyasu was trapped in Osaka, which is, of course, a fictional history. But it was filmed with great momentum.
In the boundless wilderness, the tiger chief came with an eagle.
Look at the castle gate and Ishito.
As soon as you enter the city, it is the dilemma of the four elders surrounding.
Ishito accused him of rebelling, saying that he just wanted to keep the peace.
Ishido ordered him to imprison Fallen Leaf as a hostage, and he replied fluently.
The subordinates retorted angrily, and the scene was suddenly tense.
He ordered his subordinates to stand down.
Sanada Hiroyuki's acting skills completely supported this power plot.
Although the three armies did not move, they were shot murderously.
Scheming, step by step.
What Ishida Mitsunari wants is to provoke Ieyasu, as long as he shows his flaws, he will be taken down on the spot because of his disobedience.
But if he responds in an orderly manner, the other side will have to maintain a semblance balance of power.
In this duel where the invisible sword light is invisible, Ieyasu naturally wins.
However, danger is everywhere, and Osaka Castle is still Ieyasu's prison.
He needed an opportunity to break the game.
This opportunity will soon come
In the second big scene, the male protagonist disrupts the situation.
The Dutch merchant ship drifted in the ocean, and the captain ran aground in Izu after committing suicide, and the lord Kashiki took control of the survivors and the ship.
It is rumored that there were many guns and artillery on board.
The tiger chief, who was trapped in Osaka by his political rival Ishito and waiting for the review, sent his subordinates to send the surviving male protagonist to Osaka.
At the same time, the tiger chief found the heroine of the play, the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide, played by Anna Sawai, as a translator.
However, to everyone's surprise, the greatest value brought by this British sailor was not foreign guns and cannons, but about the situation in the world.
There was the division of global power between Portugal and Spain, and more importantly, the maritime hegemony between the Protestant countries of England and the Catholic countries of Spain and Portugal.
This local Japanese game of thrones instantly turned into a global power game.
And the male protagonist who unexpectedly entered the game became a chess piece that stirred up the overall situation.
The chess game has been rewritten.
And the third big drama also followed-killing game.
In the darkness of the night, Ieyasu was imprisoned in his residence in Osaka, Japan, when there was a sudden commotion.
Assassin break-in".
To be precise, it was a female ninja who broke in.
There is no exaggerated night clothes, but the lethality is not reduced.
The female ninja has a clear goal, killing all the way to the male protagonist's bedroom, he stabs one by one, whether it is a maid or a guard, all of them lose their lives.
It wasn't until she entered the final room that a katana slashed her throat with precision
Ieyasu. The female ninja tried to make a last fight in a hurry, but was stopped by the male protagonist, Ieyasu slapped it lightly with the handle of the knife, and the female ninja fell to the ground and died.
The retainers hurried over and angrily denounced Mita for doing it.
But Ieyasu said calmly: It's not him. Because he changed rooms with the male protagonist, and the female ninja just happened to enter Ieyasu's current bedroom.
In other words, the target of the assassination is not Ieyasu, but the male protagonist.
This Sengoku Game of Thrones in Japan is getting more and more interesting.
And everyone knows that there is only one final end to this palace fighting drama - that is, the battle of Sekigahara that will decide the world.
The largest civil war in Japanese history is coming.
I have to say that the plot of the first two episodes is indeed exciting, the story advances at a high speed, there is no waste scene, and the atmosphere is full.
Especially in the meeting scene of the five elders, under the rare top-down surround camera, the atmosphere is tense and gloomy, and the powerful factions are racing with each other, creating a proper thriller atmosphere.
In this way, the game of thrones between the scheming, the world, the five lords of Japan, the missionaries, and the English pirates is linked.
Power seizure infighting, assassination and smuggling, and nautical adventures, the audience was also instantly brought into empathy by the fast-paced story and tense palace fights, and followed the director into the story of "Nioh".
Although the imaginary battle scene has not yet arrived, the tense power battle scene involves everyone's nerves, which is also the charm of "Shogun" as an American-style Taiga drama.
Domestic historical dramas can always emerge with extremely wonderful acting skills and big actors, and American-style Dahe dramas are no exception, historical dramas, actors must be the most important.
Correct casting is the basis for shaping the characters, and actors who match the temperament of the ancient characters can inject a sense of realism and heaviness into the play itself.
"Shogun" is good-looking, because the focus is on creating complex characters, and it doesn't let the dazzling special effects dominate.
In terms of casting, the series gathered almost all of the powerful Japanese actors who are active in Hollywood.
The key role of the tiger chief was originally scheduled to be played by Takuya Kimura, the king of the Japanese drama, but under the epidemic, Kimura finally resigned, and this role fell on the head of Hiroyuki Sanada, who had been fighting in Hollywood for many years and finally won attention with his performance in "Fast Pursuit 4".
As it turned out, it couldn't have been more of a proper casting.
There are also a lot of scenes in "Shogun", which is very enjoyable to watch.
Among them, it also contains the actor's control of details and the laying out of foreshadowing.
Let's give 2 examples to help you see through the twists and turns of the characters and power field in this "Shogun".
Performance detail 1: Hiroyuki Sanada's poker face.
As one of the five most important elders of the year, Ieyasu was definitely a heavyweight, but Hiroyuki Sanada played this hero, but it made me feel four words: walking on thin ice.
In the entire first two episodes, Hiroyuki Sanada acted almost from beginning to end, and laughed once in front of his son in total.
But he doesn't laugh, and the details come out.
Especially the scene where Hideyoshi and Ieyasu "put their hearts together" in front of their sickbed, it seems that the monarch and the ministers are of the same heart, but in fact, Hideyoshi, who is about to die, is tempting every sentence, and every sentence of Ieyasu is parrying.
He could not tell a lie, because Hideyoshi was extremely intelligent.
I can't tell the truth either, because of course there was an ambush in Fushimi Castle.
Between the true and the false, between the virtual and the real, Ieyasu passed another level.
When he walked out of the solemn Hideyoshi sickbed, he was silent on the surface, and he had a conclusion in his heart.
The poker face is a cover for Ieyasu and a gift for a complicated situation.
Japan before the Great War of Sekigahara, the world was undecided, and the undercurrent was surging, how to laugh.
After experiencing this layer, you will find that Hiroyuki Sanada acted well, and Ieyasu could stand.
Performance detail 2: Tadanobu Asano's laughter.
Tadanobu Asano is so funny in the play.
He's the lord of Izu.,In charge of a projectile land.,Coincidentally.,Ran into the man's boat.。
I thought I could make a lot of money and take the things on the ship as my own, but I didn't expect that as soon as I moved ashore, Ieyasu's subordinates arrived, and even people and boats were all wanted.
Tadanobu Asano's play is wonderful.
He laughed and said, "This ship has long been on the Lord's ship, and I just want to surprise him."
While continuing to smile and say to his subordinates: There are spies among you!
This unlucky and pitiful appearance was vividly played by this laugh in an instant.
But that's not the end of the laugh.
In a blink of an eye, he was found by Ishida Sancheng again, and he laughed again, and said that the other party was the most powerful person in the world.
The third time, it was Asano who led the team to save the male protagonist who was facing beheading, and he laughed at the male protagonist.
Asano at this moment is the real happy smile.
The deep meaning of the three laughs is not only the portrayal of the characters, but also the underlying logic of the Japanese notories back then.
In Japan at that time, a small role like him was simply a weed in the wind, and I didn't know whether to fall to Ieyasu or Mita.
Only the left and right are the source, and the two ends bet.
It is no wonder that in the Battle of Sekigahara, Ishida San succeeded in falling short, because the people of the world were already wavering.
Two details, there are kings, nicknames, power field ecology, princes' power techniques, and power balances and internal strife throughout the history of the Warring States.
Coupled with the wonderful performances of Anna Sawai and others, this big drama is becoming more and more interesting.
Are there any drawbacks to the episodes?
Not only that, but there are many more.
For example, Douban netizens unanimously criticized that looking at Eastern history from a Western perspective, no matter how you look at it, you can't understand it.
Also, the wonderful scenes in the drama are basically the line of Hiroyuki Sanada, and the line of the British male protagonist can be said to be lackluster.
Also, the weakness of the power plot.
Fiction also talks about the basic law.,Ieyasu himself entered Osaka City.,There's no meaning.,If you're detained, you can send your subordinates to Izu at will to ask for a boat.,In the end, he took the male protagonist into the city at will.,The plot is too loophole.。
Even the most exciting five-old power plot has a problem, that is, Ieyasu's performance is too tough, and he directly said that this dialogue is really boring, if Ishida Mitsunari directly arranges the knife and axe hand to work, there will be no Sekigahara War.
But why, the word-of-mouth evaluation of the series is still so high?
Why did "Shogun" explode as soon as it was broadcast? One word, positive.
First of all, it is the historical texture.
The costume in the play is very elegant, from Osaka Castle.
When you go to the market in Izu, from the accessories, the naginata, to the armor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and even the appearance and posture of the actors, they all try to restore the appearance of 16th-century Japan in real history.
The material and texture of the costumes in that kind of drama can't deceive people.
The photography of the series is also very standard, with grainy images and a large number of dark-focus lenses, which sets off the atmosphere of the Warring States period very well.
Even if it's a small title, I'm reluctant to fast-forward, and after a sand table deduction, what I deduced was actually the situation in the world back then.
Attentively. Secondly, the scene is positive.
The crew seems to have a good budget, and the opening scenes are several big scenes, such as the ship encountering a storm at sea and Ieyasu leading people into Osaka Castle, which are well filmed, and the action scenes in the later part of the trailer are gorgeous, and there is no lack of large-scale action design.
The series really creates a gorgeous, immersive world, but doesn't let the spectacular scenes affect the plot and character building, which is right.
Also, the characters are positive.
Although the characters in the play all use pseudonyms, they all have historical evidence.
Even the role of the British sailor is really true in history, and through the role, you can find the context in real history, which is well-documented, which is where "Shogun" is down-to-earth.
Finally, there's the drama.
The drama did not blindly cater to the audience, did not add popular elements such as ancient puppet love that domestic costume dramas are good at, but devoted all its energy to the portrayal of history, power struggles and the appearance of all beings in Dahe dramas.
Thematically, historically, and dramatically, it's a perfect fit.
Although the plot has been changed, judging from the current dramas, the temperament of that historical drama is right, which is also the reason why it is popular with the audience.
Of course, there have always been viewers ridiculing that what is the Japanese Warring States War, at most is the scale of our village fight.
It's actually right to say this, a battle of Sekigahara, not to mention how many times the Japanese Taiga drama has been filmed, Takeshi Kitano's "First" is still filming, is it because the Japanese costume theme doesn't want to shoot more famous scenes?
Of course not, because they don't.
In terms of the vast subject matter of historical dramas, not only Japan, but also the whole world are blessed with unique blessings, up and down for 5,000 years, pick out a random paragraph, it is a colorful history.
But over the years, have our national dramas been filmed?
However, some historical dramas under the banner of "real dramas" and "overhead" are emerging in endlessly.
Looking at the temperament of this "Shogun", it seems to have returned to the texture of a domestic historical drama 30 years ago.
The audience feels that the visual effects, action design, costumes and plot scale of the drama are all better than Japanese Dahe dramas such as "What's the Whole, Ieyasu" and "To the King of Light" in recent years, but in my opinion, at most, it is on par with the domestic historical dramas at the peak.
The dramas are all divine dramas on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, and Douban is only 83 points, the reason is very simple, we have seen what is a real divine drama.
It's a pity that domestic historical dramas have been created at such a high level, but this audience can no longer see the new excellent historical dramas.
Because of the aesthetics of this young audience, what they love is short and fast short dramas and ancient puppets.
If a historical drama like "Daming Dynasty 1566" is broadcast now, the ratings may be even more bleak than back then.
The audience doesn't like to watch it, the platform doesn't invest anymore, the times don't need it, and domestic historical dramas will inevitably decline.
But why are historical dramas that have been eliminated by the new generation of national dramas blooming abroad?
Why did Disney invest so much money to make a piece of Japanese Warring States history that we thought no one would pay attention to?
Are Disney and FX both fools?
Perhaps, the problem with national dramas is that we are too smart.
China has been up and down for 5,000 years, all of which are gorgeous historical drama materials, as long as you are willing to shoot, of course, you can easily beat American river dramas like "Shogun".
The question is, who wants to shoot? Who wants to see it?