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Don't listen to the negative reviews

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I enjoyed "Shogun" a great deal more than a bloated, overlong historically-set miniseries that followed a few years later, "North and South." In spite being twelve some-odd hours in length, "Shogun" does not feel like it goes on forever like "North and South," has much better actors, and moves at a decent pace. It has the formula of historic romances, including a soap opera love between the Western man and an Eastern woman, whom he is forbidden to love. "Dances With Wolves" and, of late, "Avatar" follow a similar formula, but I enjoyed the love story between Lady Toda and John Blackthorne in "Shogun" much more than in those movies. "East meets West" romances, including those between Western men and Eastern women, and even including those set in Japan some time in the past, are pretty standard in literature and film; but, somehow, I enjoyed how this formula played out in "Shogun" more than others. This may have to do with the long running time of the miniseries, which allowed for a credible romance to develop; a three-hour film would have to, by comparison, develop this plot rather quickly."The Last Samurai" repeats the theme of a Westerner of no great title in his own homeland earning the respect of the Japanese nobility, earning the title of samurai, and aiding the nobles for their own ends. Somehow, I like how this formula played out in "Shogun" even more. Richard Chamberlain (TV's Dr. Kildare) is insanely fun to watch. His American accent does not hinder his role; in fact, it makes it very enjoyable. His character of John Blackthorne does undergo a change throughout the story, but still maintains a healthy skepticism of Japanese culture and of the trustworthiness of the Portuguese Jesuit priests who have insinuated themselves amongst the Japanese noble houses. Other wonderful actors include John Rhys-Davies (perhaps best known as Gimli from Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies) is superb and fun to watch as Portuguese pilot "Rodrigo-san." Toshiro Mifune, perhaps the Japanese actor best known outside of Japan, credibly and subtly conveys the menace and wiles of the enigmatic Lord Toranaga (a fictionalized version of the real-life Ieyasu Tokugawa). The actors who played Lady Mariko Toda and Father Alvito, though relatively unknown, deserve commendation for their excellent acting.If you have any money saved up, try to rent separate discs of "Shogun" when you can until you have seen the whole series. It makes the experience more manageable (each disc is about two-and-a-half hours in length) than to see the whole damned thing at once. You will not regret it!

When I was eleven and I decided to take Japanese at my soon-to-be middle school, my dad immediately showed me the book "Shogun" by James Clavell. Due to fact that I was an eleven-year-old boy during the summer, I did not get very far past the first chapter. So when my dad suggested we watch the movie, I was skeptical. I didn't really like the book when I read it--too young to understand it I guess--and I wasn't expecting the movie to be much different.I was wrong.The movie is a great movie! It made many confusing parts of the book understandable, and was a very suspenseful and (approximatley) accurate representation of Japanese history and culture.Although the movie drags a bit in the second hour, it is action packed and very interesting. The romance between Blackthorn (anjin-san) and Mariko-san is believable and understandable, and her death and funeral is moving and heartbreaking.The un-subtitled Japanese was a nice touch, making us as confused as Blackthorn. However, you are still able to understand it due to context and body language, and by the end you will have undoubtedly learned some Japanese.Definitely worth the watch, especially if you are interested in Japan and Japanese.(extra note: the movie inspired me to re-read the book which I can now understand and am enjoying.)

I watched the series first in 1991, when satellite TV had just come to UK. All these years I wanted to watch the series, again!Only this time, I had no idea how much it was going to effect me! Back then, I was eighteen and it seemed just another swash-buckling adventure. Almost a decade later, I could actually see people and their lives! Back to time when honour and shame actually meant life and death!I even got the audio book! It helped me realise how Jerry London's adaptation remained true 2 the text! The book certainly complements the series and fills in the missing gaps!James Clavell was captured by the Japanese in Singapore and spent most of the Second World War in captivity. It is quite astonishing that instead of hating his captors he came to admire their culture and simply demonstrate the mutual prejudices of both sides!With the exception of Toshirô Mifune, it is quite disheartening to find hardly anything on the Japanese cast of the series! After much search I came across a small passage on Yoko Shimada , who starred alongside Richard Chamberlain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_ShimadaMiko Taka, Lord Toranaga's (Toshirô Mifune) consort starred alongside Marlon Brando in the movie Sayonara 1957! And yet there's nothing on her, either.It's been said that Yoko Shimada was the only Japanese, speaking English in the series. But, that is not true! Further down the line, a Jesuit Japanese priest appears, who also speaks English!

Any movie with this magnificent actor even showing up in a cameo, I give a 10. Actually, the costumes weren't very good, & a lot of the true historical facts were sometimes a little silly, but Toshiro Mifune makes the movie a classic. He's elemental, a force of nature, fantastic. Watch it just to get a glimpse of this wonderful actor's presence & charisma. The movie is based on the book by Clavell, & he did write the part of Toranaga with Toshiro in mind. The movie does follow the book pretty closely, and the book is based very loosely on an Englishman who was stranded on the Japanese Islands in the early 1600's.All-in-all, the movie on DVD is a lot better than the previous video tape that was out.