Every review you read of this series will compare it to “Game of Thrones,” and I will not refrain from stating the obvious. Set in 1600 on the cusp of the Sengoku and Edo periods, Clavell’s story involves renamed historical characters enacting not necessarily historical events. There’s a lot of plot and subplot, and many secondary and tertiary characters to execute it. As Mariko, Sawai, recently seen in “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” is the picture of melancholic resolve, and the filmmakers contrive to highlight her otherworldly beauty, filling the screen with her face at every opportunity. That he doesn’t have any special chemistry with Sawai seems almost as much a matter of concept as casting.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 02, 2024 09:51 UTC