|
This is so loving good. Super high production values, cast all bringing their A game, completely bilingual production, some poor bastard getting his head chopped off early on for mildly irritating someone important.
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2024 07:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 14:28 |
|
|
Phenotype posted:How does being a missionary to a place like that work, anyway? You show up on a boat, and you just start randomly talking to people like "hey, there's this dude called jesus and he loves you very much"? How does Christianity get a foothold there? Jesuits were like special forces versions of diplomats: they took the smartest students from the elites of the Catholic world, taught them scientific, engineering, military and mathematical principles, screened out anyone who wasn’t going to hack it being dumped in a totally alien culture and then sent them all over the world to spread influence by tagging along with national diplomatic missions and sharing useful, practical knowledge as advisors. Also by using flashy memory tricks like the ‘palace of the mind’. People like Francis Xavier were very very capable.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 06:47
|
|
|
Aurubin posted:Not really sold on Cosmo Jarvis' performance in this. Everybody else is great. I was a bit sceptical at first but he kills it in the garden scene. I think Cosmo Jarvis does a lot better when he doesn’t need to be in complete “what the gently caress I have no idea what’s going on” mode which is most of the first 2 episodes. Blackthorne is clever, opportunistic and ruthless and once you get him taking in everything about his surroundings and thinking on his feet Jarvis shines a lot more.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2024 05:37
|
|
|
Taipan’s really good fun. I think what stops the books from grating is that Clavell doesn’t feel the need to make his protagonists particularly nice or kind people, but he does make them interesting. His protagonists are mostly ambitious people, concerned with winning, not introspective about their moral codes and exceptional in various ways (Blackthorne for example is a highly competent pilot, an excellent linguist and also has a suicidally high risk tolerance).
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2024 05:20
|
|
|
The use of Japanese and amazing landscapes is sufficiently good to make me wonder how they could do Taipan well. To do it right you should film here in HK for at least a bit, and get tons of local actors. But I can’t believe a historical show portraying HK as a British colony and with a mostly sympathetic view of the British opium smuggler protagonist would get government approval to film. Technically we don’t have the same regime as the mainland but it’s a bit murky these days. E: I would love to see them cast like Tony Leung as Jin Qua or sth though. Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Mar 15, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2024 12:36
|
|
|
It’s brilliant that it showed us the discussion over regents because it makes the situation very clear: there’s not some atavistic / irrational deference to bureaucracy going on, it’s just that nobody wants to let anyone else’s protégé in as the fifth regent because that would upset the balance of power
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2024 03:51
|
|
|
Dr.Radical posted:Interesting in the context of the show where so many of the lords and their retainers are scheming but there’s still this idea of “geez can you believe that guy was a traitor??? What a piece of poo poo!” He was a traitor who did the betrayal but didn’t get away with it. The poster who likened it to “my name is Jenny Brutus” was on the money.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2024 12:27
|
|
|
I took it as a mix of: 1. Swords! Better than no swords, which is a kind of bad omen with a battle coming sometime soon 2. lol it’s the gaijin, of all people, giving me the swords? 3. Aren’t they those sketchy swords that got lost in a bad gamble, that’s kind of funny in an absurd way especially since Anjin-San probably has no idea how super valuable the ones I lost are. 4. OTOH I guess they’re the swords someone won in a gamble, I am also gambling, plus it’s right after I lost mine, so I’ve decided it’s a good omen now. I don’t think there’s any particular textual support for 4 but it seems in character for him.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2024 13:59
|
|
|
Saganlives posted:That was a great episode. I loved the whole sequence between Blackthorne, Mariko and the Courtesan. Incidentally, as someone who tries to be very deliberate in their choice of words to convey proper meaning, something that really bugs me about Mariko in the show and the book is that she doesn't translate exactly and often twists the meaning of both parties. I understand its an integral part of her character and how she survives politically, and even that it's part of what makes her an interesting character, but it still drives me crazy. I get frustrated on Blackthorne's behalf even when he doesn't know she's doing it, lol Spoilers I guess: Courtesan: “please come back soon.” Mariko, translating: “uh, she says goodbye.”
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2024 04:41
|
|
|
Nice Tuckpointing! posted:I like how that one can cut three ways. It’s brilliantly ambiguous yeah. It’s not clear how the first statement is intended, not clear how Mariko understood it, and not clear whether she’s faithfully conveying the meaning as she understands it or shutting down the idea of a repeat trip.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2024 05:37
|
|
|
Jamwad Hilder posted:It did not happen as much as you might think. There were very strict conditions to actually go through with it. You had to have a witness and you had to prove your case was valid to the local lord. If it was found you weren't justified, you could potentially be executed yourself. I am not denying that it happened, because it did, but samurai didn't go around killing whoever was mildly rude to them because that would be ridiculous. Do gangsters sometimes kill people who are mildly disrespectful to them? Since warrior aristocracies are gangs with more rules (one of which is “we can kill you if we want to, but you can’t do it back”), it seems like something that would always be on the table as a possible outcome whenever one of the professional killers was feeling disrespected by someone lower in social standing.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2024 15:19
|
|
|
E: double post
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2024 15:19
|
|
|
Blackthorne probably isn’t a terrible brawler with a sword, but he’s not a capital-S Swordsman. Neither he nor William Adams, the real historical figure, were nobles. Nobles make their money off rent and can spend their lives practicing for war; commoners have to make a living by doing stuff. So he has a lot of practical knowledge in general and a lot of rare and valuable naval knowledge in particular but he’s no fencer. Buntaro OTOH is an ice-cold killer who has no skills except chopping people up with swords, which he is very good at. The only way Blackthorne wins a real fight with Buntaro is ambushing him or Indiana Jonesing it. Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Apr 6, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2024 10:00
|
|
|
Eau de MacGowan posted:look im pretty sure if you're getting into a sea battle in 1590 - 1600 the absolute one dude you do not want getting merked is the guy who knows how to get home I don’t think this is true. I think it’s projecting 21st century rationalism onto 16th century dudes to whom “pick up a cutlass and get stuck in with the rest of us or you’re a coward and we hate you” is a more important rule than “FFS don’t let the navigator get merked”.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2024 10:10
|
|
|
Scoss posted:Is this not just projecting some modern idea that 16th century people were stupid compared to us? Not stupid, just operating on a different value system. A while back the milhist thread had a deep dive into mercenaries in the 17thC through their diaries and so on, and “keep a good reputation and don’t ever get a rep as a coward” seemed like their #1 priority because it was so socially important. For a ship that would do some fighting, I think everyone on board would be expected to do their part. Stegosnaurlax posted:Your man is going to fight if need be, but he's not swining over the side in the first wave. Yeah this basically.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2024 02:14
|
|
|
Yngwie Mangosteen posted:When stuff like that happened in most societies, the ladder pulling is more or less a required component of having your claims respected and including your family line in the nobility. Without it, the class system breaks down. Do you want to still have a hierarchy now you are at the top of it y/n?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2024 17:25
|
|
|
If ever a show earned a love story, it’s this one. drat.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2024 22:15
|
|
|
Pattonesque posted:you gotta imagine at that point too like ... what's left for him in England? An uncertain journey and, at the end of it, a land as alien to him now as he would be to it Didn’t stop him sending in 1600s terms a poo poo ton of money back to his English wife, never knowing if she would ever receive it or was even still alive
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 21:41
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 14:28 |
|
|
I’d really love to see the showrunners tackle Taipan. Hong Kong at the time was basically East Asian Port Royale, nominally run by a faraway government which needed the harbour for warships, but day to day just a hive of scum and villainy run by smugglers who were half a step up from outright pirates.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2024 22:56
|
|