James Clavell's 1975 novel "Shōgun" was adapted into a miniseries starring actor and part-time Hawaiʻi resident Richard Chamberlain back in 1980.
There's another Hawaiʻi connection in the 2024 remake that just concluded a 10-episode run on FX. It's also available to stream on Hulu.
The historic drama was brought to the screen by the husband-and-wife team of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, who are Maui residents. Kondo grew up on the island and graduated from Maui High School.
While "Shōgun" is Kondo's first TV writing credit, Marks is credited with writing the 2016 "The Jungle Book" remake and the story for 2022’s "Top Gun: Maverick."
Marks said Clavell's book, the 1980 adaptation and their 2024 show all use the past as windows into their respective present eras. The story is set in 17th-century Japan.
"We wanted to use it as an opportunity to talk about the world we live in today, in some ways, this idea of intersectionality, this idea of how do we encounter other cultures, or just others in general," Marks said.
They said most of their lives for the last five years have centered on creating "Shōgun," especially regarding accuracy and authenticity.
"I'm of Japanese heritage, so there's just that built-in curiosity. But it very quickly became clear that, as Justin said, nothing is as we expected. I very quickly had to learn being Japanese American is completely different than being Japanese — emphasis on the word American," Kondo told HPR.
While the show was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, the production flew over countless Japanese crew members, language and cultural advisors, and the mostly Japanese cast.
Marks said everyone worked together "to render something that felt to them was reflective of the culture that they were raised in."
"I think that time and time again, what we found is that was a discussion as our understanding of history continues to grow, you know. Some of these things are right and wrong, and how do we arbitrate as Westerners what is," Marks said.
"That really began to be a process of listening to your collaborators and sort of understanding how they would see it not from the lens of storytellers, but through the lens of a Japanese audience too — what they would accept," he added.
There will not be a second season of the miniseries because the first season covered the entire Clavell novel.
But Marks and Kondo said that if there were to be something in the world of "Shōgun" worth telling, they would consider bringing it to the screen in the future.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 3, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
