“I always try to be simple in front of a camera. No technique, no calculation.”
Photo: FX
Spoilers follow for Shōgun finale “A Dream of a Dream.”
In the series premiere of Shōgun, Hiroyuki Sanada’s Lord Toranaga, the soon-to-be-exiled regent at the center of the action, is described as “famous for his trickery” by his trusted vassal Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai). Ten hours later, in the last moments of the finale, Sanada sheds the character’s many layers of subtlety and artifice, finally revealing his secret desire to be Japan’s shōgun ruler in the challenge of his gaze, the set of his jaw, and the easy way he wields a katana to dispatch his betrayers. A master of control, Toranaga deftly steers Japan’s…
