SHŌGUN is a television series released on Disney+ in 2024, and after watching all 10 episodes, it becomes clear that it needs several more seasons to satisfy the intrigue it evokes in viewers. To the unsuspecting viewer, the series is a tangle of enigmas. It tells the story of a Briton in the 1600s who arrives in Japan with the goal of wresting control of trade from the Portuguese. With cunning and a keen eye for when to intervene, he tips the scales in his favor during a time of great war and manages to secure a place in the court of the local warlord. Although his motives appear to be political and economic, the figure of a Japanese woman Christianized by the Portuguese emerges as the traveler's emotional motivation, and the narrative is relentlessly enjoyable until the final episode, which resolves less than it resolves, leaving more open for future seasons.

SHŌGUN of 2024 is the rebirth of a myth. It builds upon the fame created by the eponymous series that premiered in 1980, which became a mass phenomenon and launched its lead actor, the celebrated Richard Chamberlain, to stardom. Both are based on the novel of the same name, written by Australian James Clavell, who was also a British soldier and fought against the Japanese, eventually being captured by them. After publishing the novel, he witnessed its television success in a decade when Japanese culture seemed poised to dominate the world. Although in 2024 China assumes the role of a candidate to rule the world order, Japan has not lost its allure. In SHŌGUN, the protagonist is constantly at risk of death for being different, and this keeps the audience on edge. But where the bewilderment is most pronounced is when you see characters willing to take their own lives out of loyalty to their convictions, leaving their visors on the ground and their heads rolling a few meters from their fallen bodies.

The story told in SHŌGUN takes place 500 years ago, but it remains relevant. It's still alive and full of energy. It's similar to the story told in the first FAST & FURIOUS film, the 2001 one, and also to the story of AVATAR from 2009. They all share the common thread of having protagonists who are foreigners to a culture or place and who try to adapt, but without abandoning their own hidden and treacherous objectives. Individuals from two worlds, divided, who, as time passes, belong nowhere and who ultimately end up identifying with that which at first seemed despicable or completely opposed to their essence… Have you ever felt this way?