Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT FX's Shogun has won consistent critical praise for its authentic evocation of 17th-century Japanese culture, providing a stark contrast with a 21-year-old Tom Cruise blockbuster. Based on the novel by James Clavell, Shogun blends fact and fiction in telling the story of John Blackthorne – an English pilot who finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of Japan before the nation was in regular contact with most of Europe.
There are also similarities between the two stories' contexts. In Shogun, the bigger picture concerns a power struggle at the top of the Japanese government between the seemingly righteous Toronaga and the scheming Ishido. Likewise, The Last Samurai stars Ken Watanabe as a renegade warlord, fighting against the central leadership of the nation and pernicious forces who have undue influence over the emperor.
The Last Samurai's box office performance and comparative critical success highlight that it was far from an outright failure. However, where Shogun centers the story firmly on Japanese characters, with much of the dramatic action unfolding in the Japanese language with no Europeans present, The Last Samurai tells almost everything through the lens of Algren's experience. The result is a story that is inevitably diluted, less believable, and ultimately less interesting.