Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire (TV Mini Series) The Return of the Barbarian (2004) User Reviews

The final episode in a fine PBS mini-series on the Tokugawa period in Japan.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 3 August 2013]

This is the final episode of the three-part series on the Tokugawa period in Japan (roughly the late 16th century until just after the US Civil War). Because Japan experienced lots of stability and even, in some ways, stagnation during the time following the first several Tokugawa Shoguns, this episode is a bit duller than the previous two--especially the first two-thirds. In this portion, you learn about the somewhat pointless lives of the samurai (mostly partying and chasing women since they had no wars to fight), the increase in prestige of the business class, and the Yoshiwara district. Later in episode three, you learn how the west (particularly the Americans) forced themselves upon the Japanese--thus opening up Japanese society to outsiders and spelling the doom to the Tokugawa shogunate. Well worth seeing--and narrated by the star of the American TV mini-series, "Shogun"--Richard Chamberlain. Well worth seeing.