beormas

Both, the series from 1980 and this one stay pretty close to the book, with some minor alterations and, since the book has more than 1000 pages, some omissions. With all the material, the series could have been much longer.

First of all, the book is great, it's a real page turner, I highly recommend it. James Clavell's other novels are also good, though I liked this one best.

This series has a longer run time than the old one, so they could add more details, though they dragged out some things unnecessarily.

I enjoyed watching both.

I liked the acting in the old series better, Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada and John Rhys-Davies did a better job than their counterparts here and Furanki Sakai is about as good as Tadanobu Asano.

Of course, the picture quality of the newer series is much better, especially if you are watching in HD or above.

If you just want to get to know the plot, which is actually based on a true story, then either series will do, but both are worth watching.

On a side note: I've heard talk that, because of its success, they might want to produce a second season to Shogun. I don't think that would be a good idea. Clavell was an excellent writer, I fear the screen writers would not come up with a story that's even half as good. Instead, they should consider turning Clavell's other novels into a series.

The story may have its flaws. Are there really people so nice and well liked like Yoshida? Can Sayu.really be such a nice girl after all she'S gone through?

Others have complained about the ending, but I think it is fitting, if not necessarily politically correct.

BUT: When I first watched it, I binged the whole show in 2 days, then I immediately started watching it again and all in all, I have seen it 5 times by now. There are not many series that I watched this often.

Higehiro takes you on an emotional ride with some sad and many heartwarming parts, the music also fits very well.

Now, not everyone might enjoy this show as much as I did. I do not know how female viewers would react to it. Most will probably still like it, but perhaps not as much.

The age ratings range from 12 to 16 in the various countries. Higehiro deals with some very heavy issues that kids would probably find disturbing.

I just binged this in 2 sessions over the weekend. I found "Parlement" entertaining, informative and I kept wanting to see more, despite the fact that it's a mix of languages and I had to rely on subtitles for most of it. "Parlement" is a satire about the workings of the European Parliament, the bureaucrats, the lobbyists, the MEPs and their staff. As in any good satire, it's over the top and exaggerated, but with the truth at its core, thus pointing out the many flaws that the systems has, but also why it is good that we have institutions like the EU and its Parliament, despite their many flaws. It also makes fun of the various stereotypes of the people living in the EU, mostly the Germans and the British, I would have wished for a little more self-criticism of the French in this French production.

This series is obviously aimed at people who are interested in the European Union and it's probably hard to follow if you don't know at least the basics of how things work there. If you understand German, I recommend that you first watch Democracy - Im Rausch der Daten.