Spoilers for Shōgun can be found throughout this story. If you aren't caught up, check out one of our other excellent articles.
Ever since it premiered as part of the 2024 TV premiere schedule, critics have praised Shōgun for its acting, story, cinematography, and more, comparing it to shows like Game of Thrones. Things have been heating up even further as the show progresses, however. Episode 4, "The Eightfold Fence," began a forbidden relationship between characters John Blackthorne and Lady Mariko, and it has me hooked. Anna Sawai sat down with me to speak on why the romance is such a "breath of fresh air" for the newcomer streaming show.
A specific part of the drama focuses on the journey of Lady Mariko, a young woman trying to prove her value in a world where her family has been dishonored, and how she comes to be the translator for John Blackthorne, an English sailor who has been shipwrecked in Japan and captured. While it's not nearly as prominent as some of the intense relationships in those classic enemies-to-lovers movies, they share a forbidden love. And now, at the very end of Episode 4, the two cemented that attraction by sleeping together.
As you would expect, this type of interaction between Lady Mariko and John Blackthorne is extremely dangerous – especially since Lady Mariko is a married woman. It has me on the edge of my seat to see what will now happen between them. But in an interview with CinemaBlend, Anna Sawai, the actress behind Mariko, revealed the reasons why she came to care for Blackthorne – because he's the only person she can "be herself" around due to her title and name in Japan:
When she first meets him, she doesn't trust him. She's Catholic, and he's a Protestant, and everything that he's saying is the opposite of what she believes, and so I think in that sense, she kind of doesn't really care what he thinks in front of Japanese men. There's a certain way that she has to act, these societal rules, but he's a foreigner, and so he doesn't understand that, and so she can kind of be herself.
Based on the novel by James Clavell, the series hails from FX and tells the tale of three intersecting stories that connect during 1600s Japan when the borders to the world were closed off.
In a world as strict as feudal Japan, there were specific societal rules that women, men, children, and everyone had to follow to fit in. Otherwise, you'd risk being ostracized or, worse, executed if the risk was high enough.
Sawai told me that because John is the complete opposite of what she is used to with most Japanese men, including her husband, she feels she can be "vulnerable" with him without facing repercussions. It's a "breath of fresh air" for her character, and should help Shōgun fans to root for the characters onscreen.
She doesn't have to think about trying to be respectful to him and so I think that allows her to become vulnerable with him, and when she does show her true self, he's accepting of that, and I think that's a breath of fresh air to her, and that's how they become close.
With so much on the line regarding Shōgun in maintaining authenticity to Japanese culture, from the political battles to the physical ones that end in death, the relationships are some of the best moments of the miniseries, adding in that human element in a world as massive as this landscape. And for someone like me who enjoys forbidden romances, I'm completely hooked and excited to see what happens next.
There are plenty of shows like Shōgun out there, but episodes will continue to premiere weekly until their finale on April 23rd, 2024, so now's still a great time to catch up. These episodes will only continue to deliver some excellent surprises as time goes on for those who haven't read the book.
