Review: Shogun, "Crimson Sky" | Season 1, Episode 9
It occurs to me that I haven’t spent enough time in these reviews praising Anna Sawai’s work as Lady Mariko. Allow me to correct the oversight: she’s fantastic. The character is, in this production at least, the heart of Shogun, the individual who best expresses the story’s main themes even as she struggles to find peace within them. In “Crimson Sky,” the penultimate episode and presumably her last, Mariko takes center stage as the fulcrum of Toranaga’s plans, the key part of his efforts to tear down Ishido’s power and authority. That she commits so fully to his vision isn’t a surprise, given what we’ve learned of her through the season; but what makes “Sky” such a stunning achievement is Sawai’s insistence that we never forget a human being is making these choices. She is not an automaton or a cult-member. Nor is she some fantastical, rigid ice queen, a caricature conjured up to serve a plot function and little else beside. This is a person who has lived a damaged, agonizing life, a …
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