The show does get better. The book is violent, but not as terrible as other movies that took place in recent history. I love it, so interesting and shocking. I was more upset watching "The Pacific" or one of those WW2 movies where they interview the real people at the end. It was so recent and it was so gruesome. I couldn't finish watching All Quiet on th.e Western Front, that was so sad. I watch these movies to take my blinders off for a moment and I'm so grateful that I live in comfort. |
Same. I find all the historical stuff and learning about Japanese culture/politics at that time really fascinating, and the cast is incredibly good. Also, the first episode is more violent than the others (though there is violence throughout). There's really nothing like that boiling scene in the next 5 episodes (I haven not watched this week's yet). The show involved military conflict, so there are some battle scenes, but war is violent. There are also other examples of more personal, specific violence, but it's not all the time and it's done to show who certain characters are or to give a sense of the kind of place and environment they are in. The show is partially about the concepts of honor and death in Japanese society at the time, and with the central characters, there are multiple storylines that revolve around the idea of someone needing to die to make amends or to restore honor. But it's presented in a complex way, it's not clear cut. I get some people are just sensitive to violence in TV and movies and if so, it might not be for you. But I actually think this show is much more thoughtful about violence and gore than Game of Thrones (especially the first couple seasons, and especially with regards to intimate violence towards women). I am not squeamish about violence generally, and there are things in GoT that I simply cannot or will not watch. And I say that as someone who read the books and didn't mind the violence in the books because I felt it was presented in a more nuanced way, and in the show it was often very gratuitous and almost ecstatic. Shogun isn't like that, IMO. But yes the boiling alive scene is probably the most alarming and gratuitous violence in the show. |
I am OP and I don't watch Hallmark movies or Virgin River either. |
Thanks for pointing this out OP. I really hate these kinds of things in shows. |
Thank you for noting the Bataan Death March. Inhuman. I also knew those who were deeply changed from their experiences, but rarely discussed it. I guess the darkness was so deep it had to be locked away. |
Didn't the US also do the same thing to Native Americans? Forgot under which president but am pretty sure it's famous. |
Do you mean the Trail of Tears? |
It was called the Trail of Tears. Very terrible. Different because it was the forced displacement of Native tribes so that their land could be colonized. So these were people who had lived in their homes for generations being forced to leave under inhumane conditions. The Bataan Death March involved POWs. It doesn't make it okay, but it's functionally different. |
One atrocity does not cancel out, let alone justify, another. There's no zero-sum balance on such cruelty. And you're thinking of the Trail of Tears, which took place over two decades. I suggest you read up on both tragedies. |
I'm 44 and really enjoyed the book as a teen in the 90s, long after it had been published in 1975. I'm a bookworm, and can read a lot of stuff I cannot watch onscreen. Not going to watch Shogun. Dune is another example of a screen adaptation of a supremely violent book. They took a different tack and decided not to delve into the sexual torture present in the books. |
No one said this justifies anything, just pointing out that in the larger context of history the Bataan death march is not that notable in that it attests to the cruelty of humanity, whether it happened in another century or this century. |
I added that the Trail of Tears took place over two decades as background of that particular piece of history, not in comparison to Japan or Bataan or anything else. I still think further reading would be a benefit. |
You can check the imdb Parent’s Guide on any show/movie and it will list any violence.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2788316/parentalguide/violence |
www.doesthedogdie.com is my favorite trigger warning website for movies. |
Yes, the Japanese really did do some horrible things that are being forgotten, but so has everyone else. It is probably more accurate to say that humanity really did do some horrible things that are being forgotten. We need to remember that we all have those dark parts in our past so that we recognize that evil and cruelty is not contained to any one group. If we start feeling too smug about being “good guys” and assume that all the “bad guys” are other, we might let down our guard and let evil rise amongst us. |