It does a good job of bringing the characters to life, and when you watch it, having read the book, you get the feeling that you know the characters. The mini series stays very close to the book, exploring the country, the characters, and the culture of the time.

The book is too big to be made into a 2 or 3 hour movie, and would suffer if an attempt to do so were tried.

The conversion to the small screen, All NINE HOURS! of it is a really good piece of work. It is a fabulous piece of literature and when I read it, it transports me to Japan. I have read Clavells books on Many occasions, and it is unputdownable. The Shogun, TV Miniseries has to be one of the best pieces of Tv entertainment I have seen. One noticeable problem is the casting of Richard CHamberlain as John Blackthorne, whose appeaance doesn't suit the ruggedness of the character Yet when compared to the book, it simply fails to convey the effect. True this is the first great miniseries, and a excellent work in it's own right. With this ten-hour miniseries, television comes as close as it possibly can to paralleling the adventure realized so clearly in the pages, yet unfortunately, that's not quite close enough. Whilst in 'the land of the gods', Blackthorne becomes engaged in a passionate and tragic relationship with the married Mariko, while the two obstinate men, Toranaga and Blackthorne learn to respect one another's cultures and ideologies. It showed completely the culture clashes between two nations at the opposite ends of the world, as Pilot John Blackthorne is thrust into the midst of a Japanese feudal war between Lords Ishido and Toranaga. James Clavell's Shogun, the first book in his epic asian saga, was a modern masterpiece. In the words of one reviewer, 'It simply will not let the reader go.' Unlike many another action tale, an educated woman has a pivotal role. Blackthorne (Chamberlain) lands in the midst of the mighty struggle for Shogun: military dictator of the country that's had 600 years of civil war. The adventures of an English Pilot (Chief navigator) in 1600 in Japan - the height of the samurai power - are riveting. Outstanding support by John Rhys Davies, Damien Thomas and Alan Badel, as well as a host of Japanese actors keeps the atmosphere rich and the action strong.

There's a first-rate adaptation of Clavell's novel, crisp direction and sterling performances by Richard Chamberlain, Yoko Shimada and Toshiro Mifune. The full-length version of the miniseries is now available on DVD, and it's the best way to see it. Skip the 2-hour version, and dive in to another world, another time. Why anybody went through this (and I pity the poor editor who had an impossible job) is beyond me, except that there must have been a greedy executive somewhere who thought there was money to be made. Incomprehensibly, they tried to sell a two-hour version of the 10-hour miniseries, and it's junk.

Shogun novel review