Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

OVERALL THIS RELEASE IS EXCELLENT GIVEN THE SOURCE MATERIAL (made for TV). More on audio/video quality below. This TV mini series is still generally considered one of the greatest mini series events in the history of American television. It is based on a best selling novel by James Clavell. That novel was so important to Western introduction of Japanese culture that in 1980 (the year the TV series aired), as many as 50% of all college students in Japanese related classes had read the novel. THE PLOT: Fictional story woven together from threads of true persons and events. Many names are changed for the story. -- Ships Pilot John Blackthorne has been hired to guide five Dutch ships to Spanish interests in the new world to disrupt (under sanction from the crown) their activities and plunder them. On their journey around Cape Horne, 4 of the 5 ships are lost in a storm. Blackthornes remaining ship, the Erasmus, flees the Spanish in a long journey that leaves him washed up on the shores of Japan after yet another storm (this is all narrated in the first 5 minutes). The Dutch crew is held hostage by a local Samurai in order to keep Blackthorne in line. Blackthorne ultimately travels with the regional Daimyo, Lord Yabu, to meet the head of the Counsel of Regents for the entire country, Lord Toranaga (based on the true figure Tokugawa Ieyasu). Blackthorne's predicament is complicated further by the presence of Jesuit Priests who are enemies of England and the Netherlands. They tell the Japanese lords that Blackthorne and his men are pirates. However, Blackthorne manages to impress the Japanese through a series of events that prove his honor, loyalty and resourcefulness. He is also eventually aided in learning the Japanese language and customs by a beautiful woman named Mariko with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately she is the wife of Lord Buntaro, one of Toranaga's vassals. Where Blackthorne is initially stunned by the seeming barbarity of the Samurai class, he eventually develops great respect for the Japanese culture and is set on the path to becoming something impossible for a foreigner, a Samurai. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Events in this story are mainly set in 1600 after the reunification of Japan (set in motion by Nobunaga and finished by Hideyoshi, predecessor to Tokugawa), but in the space after the death of the Hideyoshi figure and before the ascension of Tokugawa. So the political situation is very tenuous! The novel and TV show does compress a few events that happened before 1600. The Jesuit involvement in trade in Japan is actually based on fact. However, their influence was already on the decline by 1600 where the Japanese portion of this story begins. Blackthorne's character is also based loosely on a real person named William Adams, though is garbled together with another occurrence called "The San Filipe Incident of 1596" where a captain of a Spanish galleon was shipwrecked on Japan and tried to bargain for the return of his cargo while Hideyoshi was still in power. This real life captain claimed to Hideyoshi that Catholic missionaries were routinely sent to make converts before Christian countries exerted political and military influence to gain new conquests. Hideyoshi recognized this pattern happening and set in motion a ban on Christian missionaries and largely closed the county to external influence that would last over two centuries. He even crucified a number of missionaries. It is important to note that Jesuits and other Christians still continued limited trade and operations in the country though. In our fictional story, Jesuits still have significant influence when Blackthorne also relates a similar warning to Toranaga of impending political and military danger that follows missionaries (specifically Jesuits). THIS BLU RAY RELEASE: I mentioned that there are limitations to the restoration of this series because it was made for TV. To younger audiences, it may seem dated and lacking in a few areas. The sound is the most noticeable weakness, though it says DTS Master Audio. There is separation of sound and they did a fine job with what they had. However, it is discernibly from a reworked mono source (not much you can do about that). The video quality is actually very good for a TV series that age and a noticeable improvement over the older DVD releases. There will be grainy shots here and there, but its pretty minimal all considered. It is aspect ratio 4:3, as stated on the box. If you saw it in wide screen on other releases the image was being cropped top and bottom (which is not the case here). Of course it's not going to be reference quality compared to new productions today. However, the fairly authentic setting of Pre-Edo Japan overcomes the dated stuff I mentioned. The cultural introduction is amazing (I have since lived in Japan and made Japanese my major in college). This show is extraordinarily authentic (for late 70's early a 80's productions) and filmed in some of the most beautiful castles in Japan. The costumes of the Daimyo and Shogun are gorgeous! I have seen other old TV show restorations that can't touch this one so give it a little slack for it's source material and enjoy a major TV event all over again.