Shōgun
Season 1 – Episode 1
Original air date : February 27, 2024 (Netflix)
Plot: Destinies converge in Japan after a barbarian ship washes ashore in a poor fishing village. Meanwhile, in Osaka, Lord Toranaga finds himself outplayed by his enemies.
* * *
[wind whooshing]
[wood creaking]
[metal squeaking]
[wood creaking]
[door opens]
[pilot] Captain.
I was unable to take any celestial destinations due to…
The clouds.
Yes, the clouds.
However, white sand by the mark ten.
Ten fathoms. White sand in the tallow.
You see what you want to see.
Well, the son of a bitch Spaniard’s rutter was right about Magellan’s Pass, was it not?
Oh, give it here.
The cursed bastard thing is to be the death of us all.
The time has come for you to start making plans.
You have no food.
As of tonight, no water.
We’ll make land.
[captain laughs]
We’ll make land.
Goddamn English pilots.
You never know when to give up.
We’ll reach the Japans.
Japans. Listen to yourself. That is the scurvy talking.
We’ll lay claim to that dark land.
Then it’s back to Holland, rich, having gone round the world.
Eh.
No.
No, Pilot.
Not me.
Five ships when we began.
A crew of over 500.
We are now barely a single vessel.
At my age, you draw your line.
That would be a coward’s way out.
The Erasmus remains home to a dozen men still looking to you.
Looking to me for what?
We cannot fulfill our mission.
Don’t you see, there is nothing!
All right, there you have it.
Pilot.
Pilot, it’s nothing to fear.
It’s a blessed release.
It’s like only a soft wind in your face.
Can you feel it?
That is the breath of the Almighty.
He’s calling us. Listen.
He is calling us home.
[door closes]
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
[villager singing in Japanese]
[bird squawking]
[sheep bleating]
[singing continues]
[wind gusting]
[wood creaking]
♪ ♪
[horse neighs]
[man shouts in Japanese]
[soft grunt]
[coughing]
[gasps]
[samurai exclaims in Japanese]
[grunting]
[panting]
[falcon screeching]
[horse snorting]
[horse neighs]
[falcon screeching]
[horse snorting]
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
[horse snorting]
♪ ♪
[guard speaking in Japanese]
♪ ♪
[wind whooshing]
[wood creaks]
[soft thud]
[indistinct chatter]
[distant shouting]
[indistinct chatter]
[sailor] Move over. Can you see what they’re doing?
Come on.
I think they’re towing her in.
Can you tell what they are? A-Are they Cathay?
Quiet!
[pilot] It’s what I’ve been telling you.
They’re Japanese.
Well, don’t all thank your good fortune at once.
We’ve reached it.
Portugal’s secret empire in the East.
Impossible.
The orders are still on.
What part of this is still on?
[sailor] All I know is we had Spanish ships to the south and north of us out of Santa Maria.
And this pilot got us through.
We can still negotiate. We have goods to trade.
Not to mention I speak fluent Portuguese.
As soon as the Portuguese tell them who we are, we’ll be hanged.
They don’t know who we are because the rutters are still locked in the captain general’s quarters.
[rooster crows]
And as long as they stay that way, we are safe.
[dog barking]
We’re just merchants, lost at sea, looking for safe passage home.
You really think it’ll work?
Here’s what you’re missing, the lot of you.
We’ve been caught alee, windless, a speck on a current.
We’ve endured pestilence, known starvation.
We’ve chewed the calfskin covers of the ropes.
We should be corpses by now, but here we are.
12 shit-smelling…
[laughter]
…but generally able-bodied
Protestant scoundrels on a mission against a savage horde and the entire goddamn, motherless, shit-picking Portuguese fleet.
[all] Aye.
I’d say our chances are fair.
This is not where we die.
[ragged exhale]
[baby fussing]
[crying]
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
[footsteps overhead]
Hello there. You the leader of these men?
My name is John Blackthorne, and I would very much like to speak to you.
If it’s agreeable, I will come up alone.
You can’t. They’ll kill you, Pilot.
Pilot, look at their swords.
[shouting]
Look out!
[Blackthorne] No, no, no, no, don’t fight them.
[shouting]
No! No violence!
We need him alive.
[screaming]
[gagging]
[crying out]
You fucking savages!
Now I will come up alone and speak for my men.
You keep hold of him in case I don’t come back.
Bastards!
[grunting, groaning]
I submit. I submit.
We are merchants.
I request we be released to the safety of our ship.
We mean you no harm.
Omi-sama say, “Be good.”
Is this the Japans?
Hai. Yes.
How do I say “I understand” in your language?
[speaking Japanese]
[repeats in Japanese]
I ask for my men to be freed.
Not possible.
I beg you.
In the name of decency.
Please, in Japan, must be good.
If this is how he treats guests, tell this poxy little bastard I piss on his whole damn country!
[grunting]
[urine spattering]
[groans]
[indistinct whispering]
[gasping]
Our busho, Lord of Izu, Kashigi Yabushige, he asks to know who you are and how you came to this land.
Who are you?
A servant of God.
Your god?
First make that distinction, you papist prick.
My name is John Blackthorne.
I’m English.
Pilot of the Erasmus, a Dutch merchant vessel.
We were blown off course two months ago.
[priest] Lies!
That is a Dutch privateer.
And you’re a pirate, come to war on a peaceful Portuguese settlement.
They don’t know about us, do they?
You told them Portugal is the only flag in Europe.
Which means I am the first English sailor to reach your Catholic treasury.
And you have no intention of translating my words.
I beg your king for parlay.
[groans]
I humbly ask for safe passage.
Yabushige-sama says your heretic ship now belongs to him.
You will soon be executed, as will your men.
[soldier exclaims in Japanese]
I am not one of them!
And I will not be
spoken for by Catholics!
Not in Europe, and certainly not in this dark land.
[shouts in Japanese]
[speaking Japanese]
[panting]
Well, I’m sorry, Father.
We’ll be all over this continent soon.
Go back in your sty, dick up your arse. [laughs]
[groans]
[door slides open]
[singing in Japanese]
Please, we’re just merchants!
Please!
We’re just merchants! For the love of God!
Oh, please, no! No!
Please, no!
Please! Please!
[distant screaming]
Please!
[screaming continues]
[screaming continues]
[screaming stops]
[grunts]
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
[door sliding in distance]
[footsteps approaching]
[door slides open]
Ah, Christ.
Good morning.
Where are my boots?
I heard a man screaming last night.
Sounded as though he was in terrible pain.
This is very tight.
Well, listen, if it’s amenable to, uh, to either of you, I’d…
I’d… very much like to speak to your leader again.
With the swords. The man with the swords.
[door slides open]
[door slides closed]
Wonderful.
♪ ♪
[chuckles]
Where am I being taken?
You. You look at me.
You murder prisoners without a trial.
Is that how it’s done here?
[speaks Japanese]
You go…
Osaka.
I go nowhere until I see my men!
[Rodrigues] Hey, hey, piss-eating bastards.
Bow.
Bow to the bastard-sama if you wanna live.
The man is like a king here.
And tell him “goyosha wo.”
Goyosha kudasare. Goyosha kudasare.
To all the shit-eating samas, huh?
Come.
You pilot of that Dutchman, eh?
Who are you?
Young little shit, aren’t you?
What’s the latitude of The Lizard?
49 degrees, 56 minutes north.
And watch out for the reefs, south-southwest.
Or they’ll send you tits up. By God, you are a pilot.
And Inglés, too. Fuck me.
Listen, sir, you speak Japanese.
I must know if my crew is alive.
Well, that’s good news. Only one of your crew is dead.
And the Jappers say they’ll free the rest of them if you play nice.
Who of my men’s dead?
[laughs] Here it is, Inglés.
Your crew belongs to them now.
Maybe you’ll see them if you get back.
Maybe not, but it-it is out of your hands.
[shouts in Japanese]
Where are we going?
Osaka. Big city.
The Great Lord Yoshii Toranaga wants to meet you.
And what does he want with me?
Play with your balls, maybe.
How should I know?
But he’s a powerful sort, so I might let him.
More powerful than those men?
Lord of the Kanto?
A million of them fanatics would die for the honor of wiping his arse.
I didn’t catch your name, friend.
Rodrigues, and I’m a Spaniard who sails for the Portuguese.
I’m not your friend.
Any chance of me boarding my ship, Rodrigues?
Yeah, yeah. Just as soon as you lick my jib.
Listen, Inglés, no more tricks.
I told these samas that I’d be responsible for you.
So, do us both a favor, blow her a kiss.
[groans]
[wind whooshing]
Be a storm by sunset.
Eh, we should head northwest.
This crew would love to keep within sight of land.
You came over with the Portuguese?
Sailed for a living, hai.
How’d you get here, anyway?
Came by Magellan’s Pass.
Merchant mission.
Captain-General held us in Chile too long.
I warned him the winds would die.
He wouldn’t listen.
And now command rests on you.
That’s some fate. Shukumei.
What is that word?
Shukumei?
Shukumei, it’s like an attitude out here.
It’s, uh, karma.
Uh, fate. Fixed destiny. Everything is connected.
Part of a whole. Life, death.
You just have to accept your-your wee place.
These people are godless savages.
Or maybe they just don’t give a shit what you think, young, scheming little pirate.
Why do you believe I’m a pirate?
You had 20 guns on that ship.
20 guns to defend ourselves from unlawful Portuguese galleons piloted by Spanish dogs.
[laughs]
We drifted here by accident.
We’re just merchants hoping to once again cast eyes on our coast of origin.
[laughs]
I like you, Inglés, I do.
In fact, given we have a long night ahead of us, I think I shall allow you the honor of taking this watch.
Come.
Kind of you to trust me.
Why not? You are a pilot, not a godless savage, huh?
[laughs]
Hai.
[laughing] Hai!
Hai.
[thunder crashes]
[shouting]
We’ve got to turn ourselves into the swell!
Where are your cojones, eh?
Where they should be, by God, and where I’d like them to stay!
[crew cries out]
Go below, get them to row. Can you swim?
Can’t you?
Never learned.
Better to drown quickly, right?
[Blackthorne shouts]
[shouts]
Goddamn it, into the swell!
What? What are you still doing up here, you pirate bitch?
Piss on the Spaniard who serves the Portuguese.
Piss on all English. Que viva España.
Pull!
[shouting]
Big swell coming! Turn into it!
Row!
[grunts]
Rodrigues! Rodrigues!
Rodrigues!
[crew grunting, groaning]
If you bastards want to live, pull!
[growling]
Rodrigu-sama.
The pilot is somewhere here.
For all we know, he could still be breathing.
Naran.
I don’t care what sort of savage whore-bitch turd you are,
where I come from, we don’t leave a man behind.
[speaks Japanese]
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
Rodrigues!
Move a limb!
I’m only trying to get a look.
I’ll bring him up.
Me.
Oh, I see.
You can’t turn down a challenge in front of your men, can you?
Go on, savage.
Maybe the fall will kill you before you drown.
[grunts]
[cries out]
[yells]
Sorry about your sack-of-shit lord.
[shouts in Japanese]
[groaning]
[shouts]
[wheezing]
[grunting]
[cries out]
[straining]
What the hell is he doing?
Huh?
[groaning]
[chuckles]
[Rodrigues] My leg is on fire, my head is bursting and my piss pot’s full.
You make a foul nurse, Inglés.
That man was going to kill himself up on that cliff.
He risked his life to save you.
And then when he was done for in those waves, he didn’t fight.
He could have tried, but he just turned and drew his blade.
He chose his death.
What better end can a man hope for?
Will I die here?
[chuckles] Likely.
How can you just accept being powerless to this madness?
Uh, you-you mean to this life?
Zehi mo gozaimasen.
One cannot resist the unseen path of nature.
All we can do is accept our small part.
It’s bollocks.
I fought too long and too hard to get here.
I won’t succumb to this madness. I won’t, I can’t.
That’s funny, I thought you washed up by accident.
Listen, Pilot, I-I think it’s only fair.
I found this on your ship.
It’s a rutter, stolen off a Spanish sailor, I imagine.
How you must have found your way through Magellan’s Pass.
Which means this belongs to you.
It’s a-a list of all the Catholic bases that you and your so-called merchant crew were putting to the torch.
I mean, real savage business, if you ask me.
Your orders: “Plunder any Spanish territory, reach the Japans, open trade in the New World.”
Which is why I’m warning you, these go to the Portuguese as soon as I arrive.
[grumbles]
[pot clatters]
This isn’t the end for me.
I won’t die in this wretched land.
This wretched land?
I’ll tell you what, Inglés. We’re coming into port soon.
Why don’t you go on up there? Go up and tell me what you see.
And tell me, when you set eyes on Osaka, if you really think our world is the hilt of civilization.
And then ask yourself, “What kind of man wields power in a land like this?”
The one who schemes in the open…
…or the one you never see?
[baby fussing]
There’s a saying out here that every man has three hearts.
One in his mouth, for the world to know…
…another in his chest, just for his friends…
…and a secret heart buried deep where no one can find it.
That is a heart a man must keep hidden if he wants to survive.
You’ll understand soon, Inglés.
And who knows, maybe-maybe fate brought you here for a reason.
Maybe you’ll live long enough to find out what it is.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
