One of the most anticipated TV series on Disney+, Shogun, was released a few days ago. In this article, however, we want to talk about the true story behind Shogun, the TV series based on Clavell’s book of the same name
The Shogun TV series has recently been available on Disney+ and is one of the series we were most looking forward to in 2024. We also recommend that you take advantage of this moment to sign up for a subscription to the platform, as the monthly subscription is still on special offer for a short time. Speaking specifically about Shogun, this series is based on the novel of the same name by James Clavell, who in his life was also a screenwriter as well as an actor. In this article we talk specifically about true story behind Shoguna tragic story, with many dark and gloomy moments, which however led the novel to become a cult of literature and opened the eyes of the English population to the oriental world.
The plot of Shogun | Shogun: The True Story Behind the Series
Let’s start from the beginning. February 27, 2024, Shogun, the series based on the novel of the same name by James Clavell, is released on Disney+. In this story the protagonist is an Australian sailor named John Blackthorne who finds himself shipwrecked in a land completely different from the one he knew. He gets involved in one civil war and he will find himself having to collaborate with an important feudal lord named Lord Yoshii Toranaga. Acting as an intermediary between the two is a mysterious woman named Lady Toda Mariko, which hides dark secrets and a past about which nothing is known. In the cast we find Cosmo Jarvis in the role of the protagonist e Hiroyuki Sanada as the feudal lord. There was already a television adaptation of this novel some time ago, in 1980, a project that Clavell himself had supervised. But now the story is being told again in the Disney+ series.
Who is James Clavell? | Shogun: The True Story Behind the Series
James Clavell was born in Sydney in 1924. He was the son of an officer of the Britis Royal NavyCaptain Richard Clavell. James lived his life, attending school until high school. But upon graduation and following the outbreak of World War II, James joined the Army as an artilleryman. One day he was injured by machine gun fire on the island of Java, Indonesia. On this island he was captured by the Japanese against whom he had been sent to fight and was then taken as a prisoner and transferred to Singapore. This imprisonment lasted three years and marked his life forever, from this experience he took inspiration to write his first novel, The king. After surviving World War II, James Clavell rose through the ranks and became captain, which made him want to continue his military career. But a motorbike accident stopped his intent and so he decided to sign up for theUniversity of Birminghamwhere he met his wife, the actress April Stride. Under the influence of his wife, he became passionate about cinema and decided to move with her to the United States to look for work as a screenwriter. At this point his real life begins and he makes his writing debut with Dr. K’s experiment and directed by Five ways to Hell. With this last work the novel was born Shogun.
John Blackthorne | Shogun: The True Story Behind the Series
If we pay attention to the story of Shogun, we can well notice that the series tells anecdotes of James Clavell’s war experience. Just like its author, in fact, the protagonist of the story John Blackthorne he is an Australian sailor who accidentally finds himself in a land very far from his own, in the midst of a war. Also in this case John becomes a prisoner of the Japanese, as James Clavell was imprisoned by them in Singapore. Except that, obviously, Clavell fictionalized his experience a lot, but by drawing parallels between him and the protagonist of Shogun, it is not difficult to understand that the Australian writer and screenwriter wanted to tell a little about his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese. Just like Blacktorne, Clavell knew nothing of the Eastern world. Obviously there were completely different customs and theirs was a world opposite to the English one. A world in which both James Clavell and John Blackthorne had to learn to survive.
The horrors of war
In summary, the work Shogun was inspired by gods events that actually happened. Events that directly affected the writer and screenwriter James Clavell, the author of the novel that shows us Feudal Japan. Clavell’s work was very important at the time, as it is considered one of the most famous and celebrated works that popularized the world of Feudal Japan. A very interesting and intricate story that sees the Australian protagonist John Blackthorne venture into a world he didn’t even know existed, with customs and traditions that an Australian mind, who had never even heard of Japan, could never have imagined. Thanks to James Clavell’s war experience, today we had Shogun, one of the greatest works on Feudal Japan.
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