Shōgun star Anna Sawai left with injury after episode 9 fight scene

Warning: spoilers forward for Shōgun episode 9.

For weeks, FX’s collection Shōgun on Disney Plus has left viewers around the globe gripped as they anxiously wait to seek out out what’s going to occur to Toranaga, Blackthorne and Mariko.

The most recent instalment of the present, episode 9, is undoubtedly one of the vital heartbreaking… with the ending leaving followers fearful over the doable destiny of one of many drama’s hottest characters – Mariko (Anna Sawai).

Metro.co.uk was lucky sufficient to have the prospect to talk to Anna, Shōgun producer Eriko Miyagawa and showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks in regards to the pivotal turning level in Mariko’s story, which noticed her tackle a horde of weapon-wielding males whereas being saved captive by warlord Ishido (Takehiro Hira), earlier than being caught up in a horrifying explosion.

It seems that whereas filming the motion sequence the place Mariko masterfully brandishes a naginata – a Japanese weapon with a blade on the top of a protracted pole – Anna truly chipped her tooth due to the unbelievable effort she put into the scene.

‘Once we have been taking pictures the scene the place Mariko leaves the fort and he or she fights with the handfuls of males, I didn’t even know that I used to be chipping a tooth,’ Anna advised us.

‘I used to be doing it with all of the would possibly that I had in my physique as a result of I often wish to play it protected. I wish to take my distance, I wish to be sure that nobody’s getting damage – however the stunt man who was in entrance of me was a fairly large man and he was like, “I’m not backing up if you happen to don’t come in the direction of me with extra vitality – shut up the gap.”

‘So I feel that type of triggered one thing in me and I used to be like, “I’m gonna do that!”’

The following morning, Anna wakened… solely to understand that her tooth was ‘type of chipped’.

‘I referred to as the manufacturing and I used to be like, “I feel we have to repair this for the following couple of scenes,”’ the Quick and Livid star quipped light-heartedly.

Producer Eriko harassed how a lot of a ‘trooper’ and ‘laborious employee’ Anna is, having already been athletic and had efficiency expertise from her time within the J-pop group Faky.

‘It was her first time appearing in a Japanese interval present sporting this particular sort of kimono, working with this very particular weapon that required such particular motion and doing all of that whereas talking each languages, placing on an accent,’ she mentioned.

‘She began coaching one month earlier than she left for Vancouver, so it was a protracted, lengthy course of.’

Rachel, who co-created the 2024 adaptation of James Clavell’s Shōgun novel together with her husband Justin, described Anna’s episode 9 combat scene as ‘fairly bodily demanding’.

Justin added: ‘That scene, my reminiscence of that – it took us like three, 4 days to shoot that scene and which is without end in tv time. There are TV exhibits that spend that period of time on the entire episode.

‘I don’t assume she’d ever been as centered as she was on that day in between tapes. She didn’t actually return to the tent. Didn’t take a break. She simply form of stood there on set as everybody lit and moved round her, which was very Mariko-like.’

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Rachel recalled the way it was as if ‘Anna herself type of disappeared’ throughout the ‘gruelling’ shoot, which ‘required a lot of her bodily, emotionally and spiritually’.

After Mariko is pressured to remain beneath the watchful eye of Toranaga’s rival Ishido, she and Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) face an incursion within the night time carried out by masked assassins.

They try to barricade themselves in a storage room– however as soon as Mariko realises their attackers are going to blow the doorways open, she stands proper in entrance of it, sacrificing herself to save lots of others whereas additionally realizing the ramifications her dying would have on the struggle.

The ending of episode 9 sees Blackthorne look on in horror at what’s about to unfold, as the ultimate moments of the instalment exhibits an ethereal shot of Mariko blasting within the path of the digicam – a filming method that was achieved utilizing a Phantom digicam.

Discussing the highly effective ending of the episode, Justin mentioned: ‘I’m glad you carry that up, as a result of it was a extremely fascinating dialog within the edit. We soar out of order there when it comes to the chronology.

‘You see the explosion from the aspect and from the skin, and then you definitely come to her face with the second the place we hit her with a mud hit from behind, the Phantom digicam, which shoots it in an extremely excessive body fee of 1,000 per second, shot her hair out and the whole lot.

‘As an alternative of inserting that shot chronologically, we caught it on the finish, I feel one or two pictures earlier than black.’

Justin identified that when individuals undergo traumatic experiences, they won’t keep in mind issues within the order that they really occurred – ‘we keep in mind issues as we wish to keep in mind them, and we neglect what we don’t wish to keep in mind’.

So on this explicit occasion, the episode ending on the shot of Mariko’s face after the blast was demonstrating the way in which that ‘Blackthorne experiences that second, in order that what we’re taking a look at is the reminiscence of her’.

Anna recalled how ‘technical’ the ending scene was to shoot, as there have been three totally different parts – the dialogue, the second the place Mariko is on the door with the Phantom digicam getting used to blow her hair up from the again, and the interactions with the opposite forged members within the storage room.

‘I don’t know if I had sufficient time to be sentimental in regards to the character in these moments simply because there was lots that we would have liked to get coated,’ she shared.

‘Episode one to the top of eight, I felt caught taking pictures a number of the time, and I feel it was as a result of Mariko was additionally caught. At one level she loses the desire to even preserve going and he or she asks permission to take her personal life, however then as soon as she connects the dots, she has a lot extra conviction.’

The Pachinko actress continued: ‘Capturing 9, now that I give it some thought, I really feel like I type of felt the identical manner. It was like, I do know what I have to do. In scenes the place there’s frustration, I used to be feeling annoyed. I feel I used to be going by means of a really comparable mindset as Mariko, so I actually felt good about it.’

FX’s Shōgun is out there to observe on Disney Plus with new episodes launched on Tuesdays.

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