A song in my heart

We all have these moments, we all get that moment that our heart starts to sing and it is never for one reason. It can be a woman (Laura Vandervoort), it can be a video game (Horizons Forbidden West), a movie (John Wick 4). There are different reasons fuelled with anticipation, desire and longing. The heart picks up on this and sings. For me this started in 1982. A mini series on TV caught my attention. It was the exploration of John BlackThorne (Richard Chamberlain) of Japan. It was probably the first time I saw something on the historical side of Japan. We saw the titan Toshiro Mifune and I am decently certain it was the first event I saw with him. Over time I saw more, we saw the Portuguese version of Gimli, portrayed by John Rhys-Davies, Yoko Shimada, Alan Badel and many more. The work of James Clavell brilliantly set to TV. It was a few years later when I got the VHS edition and another decade until I got the DVD. It was a few years ago when I tired to get the Bluray edition, however unsuccessful. I still have the DVD’s. I must have seen the series several times since the 1982 introduction. It never stopped bringing joy to my heart. So when I saw a new trailer, the trailer to the 2024 remake, my heart basically went bug-nuts.

Now we will get to see the cycle from Blackthorne and Toranaga, now portrayed by Cosmo Jarvis and Hiroyuki Sanada. We have seen Sanada in several things (well, you could have). There was 47 Ronin, Helix and several others. I know it will be a few months, and several more until I will be able to get the 10 episodes on Bluray, but the idea in itself makes my heart sing. One of the more prestigious series I have ever seen will be remastered and with the evolution of special effects and camera options, guided by a new cast with decades of insight we are optionally treated to a series that will overwhelm the senses, at least that is what I am hoping for. The 1980 version was ‘only’ 5 episodes, but the pilot and finale were 3 hours each, as such the new version might be on par with that. Yet I am not trivialising this, the original version was a titan and it still is, it stands next to I Claudius as the best drama in history and they have had their positions for half a century, as such the remake will have quite the challenge to equal. I have no doubt that the cast is up to the task. Hiroyuki Sanada is very much on near equal footing as Toshiro Mifune is. His list of achievements is a decent indication of that. The rest? Well, I hope to learn this in about 15 weeks when the first episode airs and I do hope it is something I will be able to see, although it is much more likely I will get the Blu-ray on day one (preferably before December 2024). 

For now I feel great and it is Saturday (nice bonus). Shogun returns renewed and I can’t wait to see it. I am enjoying the weekend, I hope you will too.