Netflix Age of Samurai

[KeithS]

For those interested in the Sengoku period in Japan either from a wargaming or general historical perspective Netflix has released a rather good (IMO) documentary series Age of Samurai covering some aspects of the conflicts during that time.  They consist of dramatized sections and talking head analysis by experts on the period, admittedly the battle aspects are fairly small scale, but I suspect that is inevitable given that it is on a documentary rather than a feature film budget.  Well worth a watch to learn more about this interesting period of Japanese history.   

[mmcv]

Does the drama match up to the documentary reasonably well? I've been disappointed with these style of "docu-dramas" before where they are either historically suspect or ridiculously over dramatised. There was the Ottoman one they did a while back that was dire. I recall the historians talking about how the heavily armoured Italian troops sallied out of the walls, cut to some long haired guy in a silk shirt, no helmet, dual wielding swords... was just a bit too fantastical.

[KeithS]

It may not be to your taste, TBH I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the dramatized parts in terms of armour and weapons as I don't know enough about the period.  I have to say that there is quite a lot of blood and gore such as beheadings and samurai sword fights, but then from what I do know it was quite a violent period of Japanese history with conflicts between various clans and warlords resolved in battle.  Perhaps someone more familiar with the period can comment.

[Westmarcher]

Hope to watch this later in the week whilst Mrs W is on a zoom meeting with her pals.

[mmcv]

Fair enough. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect historical dramas to be completely accurate as their main goal is to entertain of course and I can suspend disbelief for that, but when it's presented as a documentary it can be a bit jarring! I love a good samurai film so I am tempted...

[FierceKitty]

Watched it. Not a bad intro to Sengoku history, but the battle scenes are desperately bad, and there are too many talking heads, several of which are a strain to listen to. If you know the period at all, what they have to leave out is very uncomfortable.

[Big Insect]

It is not too bad - I binge watched the lot last week. Steve Turnbull is good - although there is (as always with these sorts of docu-dramas) a lot of 'experts' on hand.

There is also lots of seppuku - guts being torn open, gritted teeth and blood everywhere - in fact if you like 'bloody' drama then this is for you - a Japanese sword seems to generate huge spurts of the stuff (apparently) as it cuts up its opponents.

The 'history' bit is generally good - and if this is a period you are just getting into it is a very good introduction.
Where it suffers is that the battle scenes are more combat scenes ... a distinct lack of extras and a lack of good (almost any) CGI unfortunately. Which is disappointing as it tends to depict the battles as just giant melee's with no semblance of real order or tactics.

But overall I thought it was a good watch - but definitely not for the faint hearted.

Talking of which ... I also re-watched a digitally remastered version of Monty Python's Jabberwocky on Amazon Prime as well last week - the similarities between the Jousting scene in Jabberwocky and the Age of Samurai combat scenes was uncanny!  

[Raider4]

. . . They consist of dramatized sections and talking head analysis by experts on the period . . .

Urgh! Well that's me out then. Loathe that style of programming.