The epic FX series “Shōgun” lives and dies in the smallest moments and details. The series thrives due to its painstaking approach to telling authentic stories with heavily researched, period-accurate costumes, sets, wigs and even plot narratives. Each crew member labored over every single wig, sword, choreographed step and or piece of dialogue while adapting James Clavell’s novel of the same name.
So it’s no real surprise when “ Shogun ‘s” climatic fight between main character Toda Mariko (played by the brilliant Anna Sawai ) and a bevy of guards isn’t a wire-work piece of spectacle, but rather, a guttural painful act of defiance and desperation for our hero. In fact, the very premise of this fight sequence is (on the surface) quite simple: a woman tries to leave. “There is such a surprising component of that when it comes to how we as Westerners approach action sequences: the character walks into a seat and they’re going to fight with a bunch of people and they’re going to win,” Co-showrunner Justin Marks explained.
“Mariko has no intention of winning this fight, she simply wants to make an expression of her will and demonstrate it to everyone who’s watching what it is that she’s trying to do in order to expose the resolve of her enemies.” The cast and crew of “Shōgun,” peel back the many layers that went into creating Mariko’s act of defiance for Variety’s Making A Scene. “There was a unique opportunity in the setting of it bec.
