Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan

[Drunk Monk]

Drops FEB 24

[Drunk Monk]

Saw the screener of ep1. The subtitles weren't in place but most of this is in English. I'm slated to interview the showrunner. 

It's a documentary series with noted scholar talking heads recounting the history of Japan's feudal age beginning in 1551 with the rise of Oda Nobunaga. I was pleased that I recognized a few of the scholars. This is a ripe chunk of Japanese history - the source of so many samurai movies. It's a good history lesson and the battle scenes are reenacted sanguineously, albeit digitally so. But still, the armor looks cool and it's stylishly presented for the most part. I found myself engaged. 

It's Canadian made but I doubt I'll spot anyone from The Expanse or Kim's Convenience. 

There will be 6 eps, each coming in under an hour. 

Sword fights - check! DOOM recommended so far.

[Greg]

Nice.

[Drunk Monk]

e2. Nobunaga v Takeda and the Buddhists. 

SPOILER ALERT Buddhist karma will bite Oda in the ass END SPOILER

e2 keeps up the pace with lots of beheadings and a brutal battle. The historians are on point. Still very much engaged in the presentation. It's reminding me of books I read a long time ago (Dr. Turnbull is one of the talking heads and I read several of his earlier books - probably still have them in my stacks and piles somewhere).

My article was well received by the press rep, Den and my social fandom. I'm realized I forgot to use the word 'monochromatic' in juxtaposition with the splashes of red. 

Good stuff. Entertaining and educational.

[Drunk Monk]

E3 - Ninjas! And a major protagonist swap but we knew that was coming. There was a repeated behaving scene which had already been shown twice I think in s2 - even though I understand why it bore repeating, it felt recycled like showing the nude Stro pic more than once. Fortunately there was additional fresh beheading and even some decapitated head spiking so it’s all good.

I thought of a great drinking game where you take a shot/swig at every beheading. I’d try it tonight but I have to be up early tomorrow for a ymaa telemeeting. Maybe tomorrow for the remainder of the eps.

[Drunk Monk]

You need to add suicides to the beheadings. Take a shot for every suicide and beheading. It'll double your pleasure.

E4: The One-Eyed Dragon! One of my fav historical figures.
E5: The Korean invasion. Informative ep for me because I just didn't know much about this.
E6: The Japanese Alamo, and the obvious finale - Sekigahara.

So many sword fights. It's mostly stab and slice choreo, monochromatic with colorized armor and splashes of digital blood. Satisfying balance of sword fights and b&w talking heads describing the history. 

Very enjoyable and educational overall. Totally DOOM recommended. Also recommended to all martial artists and anyone interested in samurai.

[cranefly]

I'm through the first 4 episodes, two to go.  Yes, it strikes me as a great balance of re-enactments and talking heads, and delves into the talents, skills, and character of all the key players to just the right degree.  A good use of the budget.  Very satisfying.

As for the suggested drinking game -- yikes, that's a lot of lemonade.

Two peculiar things stand out for me.  First, the key players are regularly looking over very good maps of Japan, and I have to wonder what the state of maps were at that time, and whether they had anything remotely accurate at that time.  Second, I was surprised to learn that all the key players shared the same hobby: rock collecting.

[Drunk Monk]

Lemonade is hydrating