This week saw the debut of the FX series remake of ‘Shōgun‘ and one of the key aspects of the show’s growing buzz is easily the painstaking detail that has gone into the show’s depiction of 1600s Japan. After watching the episodes they released, it’s extremely clear that everyone on the show is aiming to do something we don’t see very often when it comes to Hollywood productions, showcasing Japanese culture in both a respectful and authentic way to a Western audience. The costumes, production design, props, and sets are all worthy of Emmy nominations before the rest of the show has been fully shown in its entirety. Giving such a loving touch to a Western samurai production that really hasn’t been done on this scale since the original version of the show from 1980 (“The Last Samurai” and “Silence” being excellent attempts in their own right).

During an interview with Rotten Tomatoes (See below), the show’s producer and star Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Lord Yoshii Toranaga (A role previously played by the iconic Toshiro Mifune) in the samurai series, explains how they were able to achieve such authenticity with the show despite shooting primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And it all comes down to having access to talented Japanese department heads and crew members that were able to work side-by-side with the local Canadian crew calling the collaborative effort his “dream team.”

“We tried to make it authentic as much as possible because it’s very important to introduce our culture to the world correctly. So, this time we could hire a Japanese crew, experts for the samurai drama for each department. Wigs, props, costume, master of gesture, and we had a great team. A great collaboration between Western crew and Japanese crew working together. It was like a dream team for me. And I really enjoy.”

Having Japanese producers, a showrunner/creator, cast, writers, department heads, and crew members seemingly have all contributed to this stunning example of how samurai projects should be handled by Hollywood on the big and small screen alike moving forward. It’s worth noting that in Japan, it’s extremely common in both the film and television industry to work on multiple projects focused on samurai, so it was only a logical choice to make sure to use these veteran Japanese artisans as a resource on the ‘Shōgun’ revival.

Speaking of Rotten Tomatoes, “Shōgun” holds a 100% critic rating and 95% audience rating on the aggregator and speaks to the quality of the series. The public has only had access to the first two episodes with more coming each subsequent Tuesday until all 10 episodes have aired. The show can be watched on Hulu in the United States and is considered a Star Original on the Disney+ app in other regions such as Canada, The United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.

Based on James Clavell’s novel, FX’s Shōgun is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.

You can watch that full interview with the cast below.

SOURCE: ROTTEN TOMATOES