Shōgun…

is a fantastic series. I have been fascinated by this character right from my youth. In fact, samurais and the concept of samurais has always held my heart and my brain. 

Shōgun is a Japanese theme and so regardless of the foreign directors, and producers, I thought it would be an authentic series. Of course they have tried to be as real as possible but unfortunately there is one explicit sex scene which I felt took away from the series. It was totally not necessary to show that scene. The Korean and Japanese films that I have seen till now have shown love, attachment between men and women, and even physical attraction between men and women in a very elegant and appealing way. The actors have been able to convey deep feelings without taking off their clothes….The passion has come through without showing the sex act. To my mind this sex scene in Shōgun detracted from the movie. 

I have always believed that cinema is a very powerful medium and as such they influence and shape our thinking. One does not have to use the f word to express emotions, nor does one have to show sex scenes to add to the story. Good acting is convincing, and can express the whole range of emotions in a sane, normal, compelling, aesthetic way. 

The West had started losing its charm some years back, but for want of good cinema, I would watch Western Cinema with a lot of fast forwarding. Then I felt it was not worth even this effort. And finally I stopped watching Western films totally. 

Korean, Japanese, and even Chinese films (though I have seen only very few Chinese films), have shown that the deepest feelings and thoughts, both negative and positive, can be expressed in perfectly good, dynamic and eloquent language and aesthetic visuals. Their power of expression is truly superlative. May they never go down the Western way…