Summary
Shoguncontinues to operate at a level of prestige television to which other series can only aspire.
Once Mariko married Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe), they never saw one another again.
It’s yet another tragedy layered into Mariko’s many regrets.
Image via Zanda Rice
Although their dynamic is one of many acesShogunheld up its sleeve, it makes sense.
Children giggling as they run barefoot through the grass also witness their fathers' passionate arguments.
They see beheadings from feet away, a grim testament to Kuroda’s tyrannical cruelty.
When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, Lord Yoshii Toranaga discovers secrets that could tip the scales of power and devastate his enemies.
Akechi Jinsai might tell his daughter she’s having a nightmare, but Mariko knows the truth.
If the executions are a dream, then it’s a nightmare from which Mariko and Ochiba never wake.
She told theShogunpodcast: “It even haunted me in my dreams.
Image via FX
So I have a friend who I was really close with in elementary school to middle school.
And for some reason we got outta touch.
And I was like, so sad.
I woke up crying.
Adding this dynamic toShogunopens a window into Mariko and Ochiba’s tragedies.
Both were women unwillingly paired off with men they didn’t love.
Image via FX
For Mariko, it’s Buntaro,a physical and emotional abuser.
Without Ochiba’s reassuring and compassionate presence, it’s no wonder Mariko sought relief in religion.
Her eightfold fence defends her from the world.
Within its borders, she’s been purposeless and agonized.
She’s near royalty untilKuroda’s supposedly loyal vassal her best friend’s father murders him during the night.
She’s torn from her bed and raced to safety as her home becomes a battlefield.
She lives with the indignity of her father’s reputation and fate like a permanently bloodstained kosode.
Then, the new Taiko’s wife maneuvers her into being a consort solely designed to produce an heir.
Anna Sawai also talks about a funny moment when her co-star’s foot fell asleep during a scene.
Undoubtedly, Ochiba is more dangerous than Ishido.
A woman who forces destiny to bend to her iron will?
That was before her life unraveled.
Ochiba is a woman so frequently destroyed that she inverts the destruction back upon the world.
Like Mariko,she lurks behind her eightfold fence.
At this point, whether Toranaga orchestrated her father’s murder doesn’t matter.
Ochiba’s conviction has roots too deep to remove.
Ochiba’s choices are her own.
Nevertheless, the machinations of men, however well-intentioned, turned them into opponents.
As Mariko said, “A man may go to war for many reasons.
A woman is simply at war.”
That battle is both defensive and offensive.
Mariko and Ochiba’s meticulous shields are always up because they know the bite of a blade.
Their agencies are limited to what’s granted, or reduced to slithering through whatever cracks they can find.
But this isn’t aGame of Thronesscenario where committing to realism equalsexploitative torment.Shogun’s narrative intentionality guides its authenticity.
New episodes ofShogunpremiere each Tuesday on FX and Hulu in the U.S.
Watch on Hulu
