I'm super psyched for Shogun!! (no spoilers, please!)

[Coventina]

I've read the book.
I loved it! I didn't want for it to end!!

I was too young for the 1980 miniseries.

Anyone else planning on watching?

I haven't started it yet, but if you have, can you provide a spoiler-free review?

[rsdsharp]

1. I think we'll start watching tonight. I'm a big Clavell fan.

I’m not sure what watching Shōgun without Dr. Kildare will be like.

[CrispyQ]

2. I read the book & saw the old mini-series.

I thought Chamberlin was perfectly cast. I didn't realize they'd done a new one.

The entire Clavell series is good. I'd rate them in this order. Tai Pan, Shogun, King Rat, & Nobel House. The concept of the broken coins...I loved it! That wasn't Shogun though.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. I pretty much have the same order of preference, although Whirlwind comes before King Rat

for me. You did not mention Whirlwind or Gai-Jin. Of all the books, the one I liked the least was Gai-Jin. However, Whirlwind is absolutely awesome! I am not prone to reading books a second time but I did read this one twice.

Clavell actually wrote King Rat first, based on his own experiences in a WW II POW camp. The characters in that book have ancestors and descendants who appear in the rest of the books. Creating that massive series with all those families intertwined was an amazing feat.

[CrispyQ]

10. I didn't know of these titles!

I read Clavell years ago before the internet & probably the four I read were what my library had. Going to look for Whirlwind today!

Thanks!

[yellowdogintexas]

11. You will love it!! I read Whirlwind in the late 1980s .

In chronological order:
Shogun
Tai-Pan
Gai-Jin
King Rat
Noble House
Whirlwind

Just found this little bit of trivia: Clavell returned to filmmaking. He wrote, produced and directed To Sir, with Love (1967), featuring Sidney Poitier and based on E. R. Braithwaite's semiautobiographical 1959 book. It was a huge critical and commercial success.

[Alpeduez21]

3. If you've read the book can we really spoil it? Haha

Watched what’s available so far. I really like it. Visually very nice. I remember reading everyone had to learn the older Japanese to speak those parts. Liked the book and the first mini series there is a slow build as we learn what’s going on. I thoroughly enjoy it.

For me it helps that I’m familiar with the story. Otherwise I think some of the more macro plot lines might be lost on me. Though it is still developing the plot so I’m withholding judgement. There are some assumptions the director assumes us to know. For instance, Blackthorne very quickly is called Pilot(Anjin) but for all we’ve seen he could be captain or first mate and it isn’t really explained what a pilot is in the context of 16thcentury merchant travel. There is a lot of talk of his journals and we are just assumed to know the importance of them, how they are used or gotten. Little things if you are familiar with the story but I think lost on people for whom this is their introduction to Shogun. Like I said I enjoy it and will look forward to more as episodes are released.

[Coventina]

5. Good point, I guess I really didn't think that through!

[Bobstandard]

4. Saw the first episode. Wait till you see..

Very well done. Engaging from the beginning.

If you like Clavell make sure you read King Rat. Heavy! Excellent

[yellowdogintexas]

8. and Whirlwind!!!! It is a very exciting book set in Iran around the time of

the Iranian revolution. from Amazon "Whirlwind" is the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979: three weeks of fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice and heartbreak. Caught between the revolutionaries and the forces of international intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee to safety with their helicopters. Two of them, both Europeans, have Iranian wives whom they love beyond safety and politics.

https://www.garysvintagebooks.com/product-page/whirlwind-by-james-clavell

Hopefully one of these days this will be made into a limited series. It's too big to just be a movie.

[GiqueCee]

6. The new Shogun...

... is excellent. It's far less sanitized than the 1980 miniseries with Richard Chamberlain, and a good deal close to the book as I remember it, at least so far. The recreation of Japan prior to its widespread exposure to European influence is beautiful.
You'll love it.

[yellowdogintexas]

7. I have read all of Clavell's books and loved every one of them

I read Shogun first, and in my mind Richard Chamberlain was born to play Blackthorne! Lo and behold he was cast as Blackthorne in the mini series. I have read the book twice.

Tai-Pan was very good; it was disappointing to me that no one made a movie of it with Sean Connery as Dirk Straun. It was actually my favorite of the novels set in East Asia.

This series is going to be so much fun!!!

[pecosbob]

12. Big fan so far.

Three things I loved...

The accurate replica of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sunrise armor. These people did their homework.

The use of traditional seating positions, both formal (seiza) and informal are historically accurate. Again, homework.

Finally, the assassin sent to kill Blackthorne was a house-maid, not historically-inaccurate black-clad ninjas.

Looking forward to the rest.