Netflix Age of Samurai:Battle for Japan series

[Bravo Six]

This is a thread reviewing a program about Samurai,not your opinion of Netflix.

I fail to see how that was a necessary comment to make. 

STREAM IT. Armchair historians, dads who’ve exhausted their supply of military history tomes, and fans of familial TV blood feuds: they’ll all get a kick out of the stirring, informative, and often quite gory Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan.

 

[Schogun]

I thought it interesting that of what, 5 or 6 experts, only 1 was Japanese.

[Andrew_McGuire]

It wasn’t made with a Japanese audience in mind. Too many Japanese commentators on top of the Japanese dialogue was probably considered a bit much for the majority of the viewers. In any case, with western authorities such as Stephen Turnbull available it would make little sense not to make use of them.

The critique by Shogunate on YouTube thought the talking heads were good but that their input had probably been poorly edited. It would be interesting to know what they themselves think of the final product.

[craigjwoodfield]

In the episode I saw, one of the so called experts compared Oda Nobunaga with Alexander the Great,  beacuse they were both great innovators. That is so wildly wrong. The same guy also said that Sengoku samurai were the greatest warriors ever. I am not sure you can blame poor editing on that.

[Bravo Six]

I thought it interesting that of what, 5 or 6 experts, only 1 was Japanese.

I noticed that as well. 

[Andrew_McGuire]

In the episode I saw, one of the so called experts compared Oda Nobunaga with Alexander the Great,  beacuse they were both great innovators. That is so wildly wrong. The same guy also said that Sengoku samurai were the greatest warriors ever. I am not sure you can blame poor editing on that.

No doubt I was oversimplifying. As I mentioned I haven’t watched any part of the series itself. The reviewer certainly took issue with some of the experts’ comments, one I recall being about the katana being the greatest edged weapon ever. He took issue with many details relating to equipment, general appearance of the characters, as well as the generally misleading narrative. Not all of these were down to the experts’ comments, but I think he felt that the producers had been very selective in what statements were included - essentially he seemed to be saying, “I know these guys are better than this”.

Rather than get a half-remembered paraphrase from me, however, it would be far better to watch the video itself.

[Muzfish4]

In the episode I saw, one of the so called experts compared Oda Nobunaga with Alexander the Great,  beacuse they were both great innovators. That is so wildly wrong. The same guy also said that Sengoku samurai were the greatest warriors ever. I am not sure you can blame poor editing on that.

Exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation did indeed ride pretty high in the saddle with those sort of statements. This greatly detracts from the end product.

I would be interested to hear Stephen Turnbull's opinion about the series.

Then again, Mrs Fish and I were watching the Neflicks Spycraft series last night and we both laughed loud and long at one talking head as he opined that "when effectively done this technique was very effective" - perhaps we expect too much from Netflicks?

[Andrew_McGuire]

It looks like the producers should be contemplating seppuku or at the very least yubitsume. It seems more likely however - and in keeping with common western perception of Japanese culture - that a relatively blameless minion will be found responsible.

[Osmoses]

I've watched the first 3 and the last one. There's very little to recommend it. The clothes are bad, the sets are bad, the combat is bad, the armour is bad and most of the history is at best contentious and at worst hopelessly out of date. I have read that some of the talking heads weren't happy at how their contributions were edited, so maybe there are a few hundred instances of people saying: "There's an Edo period legend which almost certainly isn't true that...." on the cutting room floor.

BUT, for all that, since it aired I've seen lots of people talking about getting into wargaming the Sengoku. The old 'Shogun' miniseries was a load of old tosh from a historical point of view, but it got a lot of people interested in wargaming the period. If the Netflix series does something similar, then that's no bad thing.

[Hang Tuah]

Talking of which, has anyone seen this, starring the Toshiro Mifune of our times?

[clibinarium]

I really want to see that Sekigahara movie too.

I watched the first episode of the Netflix series, and have to say I wasn't impressed. The same reasons mentioned already in the thread.
I have a couple of friends who occasionally express some interest in the samurai, but know little about them. If they asked me whether they should take a look I would say they should. But for anyone who's read some books and knows a bit, this is not for them. Very much a History Channel (back before the aliens) level of production.

I agree with the points made in the Shogunate's video. And I can't think of a better channel to recommend as a more accurate alternative to this series.

[Andrew_McGuire]

I hadn’t heard about this film and wasn’t aware Mifune-sama had an heir - who is this, please?

It would be stupid to comment on the film based on a single viewing of a trailer, but it’s good to see the actors were committed (paid) enough to shave their scalps.

[mmcv]

Bit the bullet and attempted to watch some last night. Much the same experience as many others. Seems like they had a pop culture, anime-influenced set of battle scenes they wanted to do on a low budget, then edited a load of talking heads around it to make it seem official. It's telling that there are so many experts. It's clear rather than having a few experts take a consistent narrative, they've had lots of them on so they can cut them saying the same things in different ways to seem like it's more than it is.

Disappointing. The action scenes weren't even particularly good, could have excused it a bit more if it was either a good drama with a thin veneer of a documentary, or a good documentary with a thin veneer of drama, but it was neither.

Nevertheless, as mentioned before it'll probably bring in some more people and interest to the period and history in general, which isn't a bad thing, and it won't take much reading or watching around beyond the show itself to bust some of those myths.

[Andrew_McGuire]

Having looked up Sekigahara at imdb.com I take it the Mifune de nos jours must be Koji Yakusho, who plays Tokugawa. He certainly has some chanbara pedigree, having appeared in 13 Assassins.

Unfortunately the Blu Ray costs £65 from Amazon, and I don’t even have a Blu Ray player....or TV, let alone flatscreen. I can only hope my local independent cinema will screen it when it reopens. The same applies to the rerelease of Kagemusha.

[88D]

Talking of which, has anyone seen this, starring the Toshiro Mifune of our times?

Yes watched a fan subbed version on kissasian where it's still up, it was pretty decent except for konishi Being missing in action ( he did not even appear at the the end even in passing)