Broken To The Fist – As the fifth episode of Shogun begins, commoners clean up the corpses when they hear an army approaching. Yoshii Nagakado (Yuki Kura) tells Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) that his father has returned. Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) is shocked to learn that her husband, Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) is still alive. They expect Lady Ochiba to be returned to them any day now. Lord Ohno, Lord Kiyama, and the others talk about impeaching Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). Ishido is glad to see them united, but Toranaga’s resignation had made impeachment impossible. Then, they discuss the possibility of voting on Toranaga’s replacement.

Ikeda and Hiroda mentioned as possible replacements. Mariko tells Toranaga she sees why she is called “Lady of Steel”. Toranaga calls her husband a miracle since it took him twenty days to return. He explains how Buntaro managed to survive. Mariko shows him a diary that contains everything the Anjin has said or done since he left. Toranaga asks her to remain with Blackthorne and continue working as his interpreter. Buntaro will move into the Anjin’s house with her. Toranaga asks if it was his son’s idea to murder Jozen. Mariko doesn’t know. Toranaga admits killing Jozen was foolish since Ishido will likely use it to push for a war. Mariko is asked to give a pheasant to Blackthorne. Then, Toranaga speaks to his son who knows he’s upset with him. He asks Nagakado if he ever thought he might be doing Yabu’s bidding by killing Jozen.

He asks whether Yabu’s nephew convinced him to do it. Toranaga claims Nagakado easily fell into their trap. He gives his son advice. Toranaga strips the cannon regiment from his command. Ishido learns about Jozen’s death. Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) gets the pheasant and hangs it up. Usami Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) asks whether the bird will rot. Blackthorne admits it will rot. Since it’s a gift from Toranaga, it should be the best pheasant the town has ever prepared. He makes it clear that no one should touch it and they’ll die if they do. Lord Toda visits Fuji. When he asks about Mariko, Fuji explains she has been ordered to Toranaga’s camp. Buntaro isn’t happy that his wife is living under a roof with the Anjin. He asks what it’s like being consort to a barbarian.

Fuji explains she is consort to a hatamoto so shouldn’t know. She goes on to say the Anjin prefers the company of other women. Yabu talks to Toranaga about the training which has gone well. Toranaga heard his orders were to return to Osaka and pledge allegiance to Ishido. Yabu intends to remain with Toranaga even though they’ll declare him a fugitive. Toranaga wonders if he manipulated his son into killing Jozen. Yabu says Jozen could not be allowed to report on the cannon. Yabu eventually confesses that it was his nephew Omi. He promises to discipline on Toranaga’s behalf. Toranaga asks why he’d punish such a promising young man who found a way to make their enemies attack. He thinks they’ll have a better chance when the enemy is on the offense.

Toranaga decided to give Omi command of the Anjin’s artillery. Later, Yabu complains he is being toyed with and baited. He tells Omi that he has been given command of the artillery. Omi offers to give Yabu command. Yabu insists he can’t relinquish it because it already belongs to him. He orders Omi to find Toranaga’s spy. Then, he sends a man to Osaka to try to fix things with Ishido. The workers seem to be worried about the pheasant which has collected flies. Fuji tells Mariko they’re both cursed with her husband returning. She hopes Mariko would tell her if Blackthorne is in danger. Mariko asks why he’d be in danger. Blackthorne interrupts to ask if he should be preparing for anything with her husband staying with them now.

She tells him to prepare for dinner. Blackthorne is outside with Uejirou who is busy working in the garden. He greets Buntaro moments later. Blackthorne is asked to call him Lord Toda. Buntaro says his bow can fly faster and at a greater range than any cannon. Dinner begins moments later. Buntaro makes fun of Blackthorne for eating like a baby monkey. Once Blackthorne finds out, he makes a scene. Blackthorne says only women drink from a tiny cup in his country. Buntaro and Blackthorne get into a drinking contest. Mariko thinks they should call it a night. Blackthorne wants to hear the story of Buntaro’s escape from Osaka. Buntaro says stories are for children. Fuji tries to defuse the situation. Buntaro asks about Blackthorne’s battles.

Before long, Buntaro yells for a bow. Then, he makes Blackthorne choose a post so he can shoot it with an arrow. Blackthorne becomes concerned because Mariko is in the way. Buntaro shoots the arrow past her. Blackthorne argues that Mariko deserves better from her husband. Buntaro says she doesn’t deserve more courtesy before asking Mariko to reveal her name. Mariko reveals she is the daughter of the late Lord Akechi Jinsai. Buntaro says she is the daughter of the treacherous assassin. Blackthorne tells her she doesn’t have to do this. Mariko says her father’s lord was Kuroda. She claims her father killed Kuroda because he was corrupt and murderous. Her father was forced to execute many of her relatives. Then, he had to commit seppuku. Mariko was married and not permitted to fight.

Each anniversary, she asks her husband to let her take action against this injustice. She isn’t allowed to do anything because her husband orders her to live. Buntaro gets upset when she leaves without his permission. Later, Blackthorne hears Buntaro beating her. He wants to intervene, but Fuji attempts to prevent him from getting through. Blackthorne enters and sees that Mariko has been beaten. Mariko claims the house is cursed. Blackthorne steps outside and yells for Buntaro. When he finds him, Buntaro apologizes. As he walks away, Blackthorne sees that Buntaro’s arrows hit their target. The next day, Muraji approaches Toranaga who has hidden pigeons in a cave.

Toranaga tells him that Yabu is looking for a spy in his village. Muraji offers to surrender himself. Toranaga refuses and says his real name is Tonomoto Akinao and he’s a long-serving, prized samurai. Muraji is asked to find another spy. Fuji asks Blackthorne if they can get rid of the bird. He doesn’t understand her and leaves to find Mariko. When he finds her, she says they shouldn’t be seen together. Mariko says Fuji believes his swords were given to her father as a battle honor. In reality, he died a coward begging for his life. Fuji knows nothing and they will say nothing about it. Mariko is adamant she will give her husband nothing including her hatred. Blackthorne asks what will become of her. She tells him he is imprisoned. If he only lives for freedom, he’ll never be free of himself.

Mariko says she will only serve as his translator from now on. When Blackthorne returns, he finds that the bird is gone. Fuji tells him Uejirou took it. Blackthorne insists it is fine only to learn that Uejirou is dead. He accuses Fuji of putting that old man to death. Blackthorne tells her to go away. Mariko speaks to Toranaga who says he cannot have his translator harmed. Blackthorne approaches Toranaga to ask for his ship and men back now that he has fulfilled his duty. He wishes to leave. Blackthorne tells him what troubles him about his country. They talk about the bird and Uejirou because Toranaga says he can’t be bothered with this nonsense. Mariko explains that Uejirou had been sick lately so he volunteered to get rid of the bird.

It was a better end than he could’ve hoped for. The area experiences an earthquake. They all rush to help Toranaga. Once they help him, Blackthorne gives him Fuji’s swords as a gift. They walk into the city to check on the others. Blackthorne finds that Fuji has been injured. He finishes putting up the stone that Uejirou was working on. Omi shows Yabu what they found after the earthquake and confirms there was a spy all along. Uejirou used to live there. Lady Ochiba returns safely. She thanks Ishido since she heard her release from Edo was thanks to his council putting pressure on Toranaga. She also heard that the council was outmaneuvered. Ishido is confident he will restore the council. Ochiba is worried about her son.

Ishido insists he would give his life if someone harmed the Taiko’s heir. Ochiba says the time for politics is over and the council will answer to her.

 

Shogun Review

Despite all the hype, Shogun hasn’t managed to recapture the magic of the 80s series. The fifth episode was probably the least exciting with very little happening and so many characters. At this point, viewers would need an Excel file with all the names and pictures of each character just to keep up with them. However, it clearly doesn’t feel like it’s worth the effort because the series lacks any emotion and intrigue. The 80s series was far less contrived even when I watched it without subtitles.

The series is quickly becoming unoriginal in the sense that it’s doing exactly what every other modern show is. In other words, it’s trying to be too modern with the over-the-top female characters. In the 80s series, the characters were balanced and felt more authentic. Even Blackthorne is a caricature here and easily one of the least likable characters in the series. The performances are hit and miss with some doing great while others do not, but the lack of connection to any of the characters is probably a bigger problem.

Truthfully, this is just a lifeless recreation of Shogun that is only going through the motions. There is nothing about it that is captivating enough to keep viewers around for ten weeks. The weekly releases are already making this tedious. Combine that with the overloaded cast and overly complex story and it’s a chore to try to keep up with everything. The writing is far weaker than the original and struggling to be more complicated than it needs to be.

A good example of this is the council scenes where they’re discussing replacements and impeaching Toranaga. The characters all look similar and they’ve barely been developed. It’s hard to know which character is which, but those scenes aren’t necessary anyway and they weren’t needed in the 80s series. A quick mention of the council being deadlocked would suffice instead of having 10 minutes of needless chatter involving characters most viewers can’t name. These tedious scenes are part of the reason this is running for ten episodes.

There is a good chance that most people who’ve stuck with this so far don’t even know half of the character names because many of them are unnecessary. It doesn’t help that they’re adding more and more. Then, we have the overly dark scenes where you can barely tell what the characters are holding or who is speaking. The modern John Blackthorne, Toda Mariko, and Toranaga are mere corpses of the originals with only Yabu potentially bringing the character to life.

Through five episodes, it’s clear that Shogun is an overrated mess that’s more frustrating and dull than anything else. It’s easy to see why the engagement for the series has dwindled despite the overblown hype surrounding it.

This episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Shogun can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss Shogun with friends at the Reel Mockery Forum.