“It’s very difficult to hang on to it”: the director of Shogun Clashe Le Remake Disney +
Jerry London, the director of the 1980 series, finds that this version is “complicated to grasp for an American audience” and calls into question his many awards.
For many, The mini-series FX Shōgunbroadcast in France on Disney +is one of the best of 2024. Adapted from James Clavell Best Seller Roman (1975), history takes place in the 17th century feudal Japan. Created by Rachel Kondo And Justin Marks, She is brought to the screen by Cosmo Jarvis (in the role of John Blackthorn), Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano.
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It must be said that Shōgun had an international success, by winning 5 Golden Globes and 4 Emmy Awardsincluding the prestigious price of The best dramatic series in both cases. Shōgun thus becomes the first in Japanese language to receive this distinction. But there is one that does not seem to share this craze: the director of the very first adaptation of 1980, Jerry London. Also inspired by Clavell’s novel, the cult series had had 14 Emmy Awards nominations and the Golden Globe for the best television series. Evaluating his work as “excellent”London did not want this remake to come true.
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In its version broadcast on NCB, Richard Chamberlain embodies John Blackthorne, the main character in the series. Toshirō Mifune And Yōko Shimada Complete the casting. For the director, if the new Shōgun won so many prices, it is not necessarily thanks to its quality. He is expressed in Hollywood Reporter ::
“I watched the whole series, and it’s very difficult to hang on. She won all the prices because there were no big series opposite. There was not many competition.”
If London did not want his series to be copied (he emphasizes that this is not the case), the filmmaker finds the scenario too inaccessible:
“This new version is based on the history of Japan and focuses more on Toranaga, which was shōgun. It is very technical and very difficult to grasp for an American audience. I talked to many people who watched it, and they said to me: ‘I had to stop because I did not understand.’ The directors of this new version therefore did not really care about the American public ”.
The mini-series should not last that 10 episodesbut being the victim of his success, Several other seasons are currently underway. In reality, Jerry London seems especially angry that his Shōgun has not been mentioned nowhere :: “We haven’t talked much about mine”he reproaches. He asserts a last blow by saying that the new series “Mainly contains only one British actor (Jarvis), and frankly, he did not have the charisma of Richard Chamberlain”.
