[00:00.00]Japan is celebrating the record-breaking Emmy Award wins of the American television series Shogun.
[00:10.63]Many Japanese, however, say they have not watched the series.
[00:17.62]Shogun is a historical fiction that explores the country's warring dynasties in the feudal period.
[00:28.06]It crushed all-time records at the television awards ceremony on Sunday in Los Angeles, California.
[00:37.71]The series won 18 Emmys in all.
[00:42.17]And it became the first non-English-language winner of the highly sought award for best drama series.
[00:52.84]Lead actor Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Toranaga, became the first Japanese man to win an Emmy for acting.
[01:06.61]Anna Sawai became the first woman of Asian ancestry to win an Emmy for acting. She played Lady Mariko.
[01:19.37]"As a Japanese, I'm happy Sanada won," Kiyoko Kanda, a 70-year-old retiree, told the news group Agence France-Presse in Tokyo.
[01:34.10]"He worked so hard since he moved to Los Angeles," she said.
[01:39.86]But she admitted that she has only watched the show's trailer.
[01:45.66]Shogun is available only on Disney's streaming platform, which is relatively new in Japan.
[01:55.16]"I want to watch it. I'm curious to know how Japan is portrayed," Kanda said.
[02:04.03]Otsuka, who chose not to give her first name, said she, too, has not watched the show.
[02:13.37]"But I saw the news and I'm happy he won."
[02:17.97]The 63-year-old Sanada began acting at the age of five in Tokyo.
[02:25.95]He moved to Los Angeles after appearing in Last Samurai in 2003.
[02:34.34]Yusuke Takizawa, age 41, also saw only the trailer for Shogun.
[02:43.21]But he said he could tell the show was a high-quality production.
[02:50.84]"I was impressed by the high-spirited acting, the attention to detail and the film technology," Takizawa told AFP outside Osaka Castle, a major historical site where some of the story is set.
[03:10.07]"I think many young people will want to try their hand in Hollywood after watching Sanada," he said.
[03:19.57]Shogun was adapted from a popular 1975 book of the same name by writer James Clavell.
[03:29.81]The series, filmed in Canada, tells the story of Lord Toranaga, who fights for his life against his enemies alongside Mariko and British sailor John Blackthorne.
[03:47.91]A first television production of Shogun came out in 1980 and centered on Blackthorne.
[03:57.01]The new Shogun is not.
[04:00.70]It also breaks away from years of prejudiced representations of Japan in Western entertainment media.
[04:10.88]Notably, the 2024 production is mostly in Japanese, not English.
[04:19.53]Sanada, who also co-produced the series, is credited with bringing a new level of cultural and historical understanding to Shogun.
[04:33.83]I'm Caty Weaver.
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Words in This Story
fiction- n. something invented by the imagination
dynasty - n. a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time
feudal - adj. of, or relating to, the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal
drama - n. a movie or television production with characteristics (such as conflict) of a serious play
trailer - n. a chosen group of scenes that are shown to advertise a movie
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