Shōgun may be an awards darling, but at least one person who has ties to the historical drama is not a fan of the 2024 miniseries.
Jerry London, who directed the original adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel, the nine-hour 1980 Shōgun miniseries, reflected on his involvement during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. He recalled that producers initially pushed for a director of Japanese descent. “I had to convince them that I knew what I was doing,” he stated. “So after about a month or so, they accepted me and everything went well. But it was a very difficult show to do, and it turned out great.”
The director went on to criticize the new adaptation for not being as accessible as possible for Western audiences, remarking that the show is simply “not entertaining for an American audience.”
He continued, “It’s completely different from the one I did. Mine was based on the love story of Shogun between Blackthorne and Mariko, and this new one is based on Japanese history, and it’s more about Toranaga, who was the Shogun. It’s very technical and very difficult for an American audience to get their grips into it. I’ve talked to many people that have watched it, and they said, ‘I had to turn it off because I don’t understand it.’ So the filmmakers of the new one really didn’t care about the American audience.”
“They made it basically for Japan, and I was happy about it because I didn’t want my show to be copied. I think I did such a great job, and it won so many accolades, that I didn’t want them to copy it, which they didn’t do. But the new one is funny because everybody I talked to said, ‘I don’t understand it. What’s it all about?’ I watched the whole thing. It’s very difficult to stick with. It won all the [Emmy] awards because there were no big shows against it. There was not too much competition.”
Do you agree with Jerry London’s critiques? Chime in with your thoughts down in the comments!
