Sawai, Anna

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    Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada on How “Shogun” Recreates History

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    Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada, two stars of the hit series “Shogun,” discuss history, acting and what they’d bring to the present from feudal Japan.This personal reflection is part of a series called The Big Ideas, in which writers respond to a single question: What is history? You can read more by visiting The Big Ideas series page.The 2024 television series “Shogun,” a historical drama set in feudal Japan, was a worldwide hit. The show and its actors won a record 18 Emmy Awards, as well as four Golden Globes. Critics and viewers praised it not only for its writing, acting and production, but also for its devotion to accurately portraying Japan and Japanese culture in the early 1600s.The historical drama, which has been renewed for a second season, is based on a novel of the same name by James Clavell, published in 1975 and adapted into a mini-series in 1980. The story focuses on the relationship between Lord Yoshii Toranaga, a warlord struggling to fend off his political rivals, and John Blackthorne, a marooned English navigator who becomes an adviser to Toranaga. The 2024 series gives a more prominent and complex role to Toda Mariko, Blackthorne’s interpreter.The characters’ historical counterparts are Tokugawa Ieyasu (Toranaga), the “shogun,” or military ruler who helped to unite Japan; William Adams (Blackthorne), the first Englishman ever to reach Japan; and Hosokawa Gracia (Mariko), a Japanese noblewoman and converted Catholic.The novel and two series show varying degrees of faithfulness to the events they’re based on. The newest “Shogun,” however, is built around its Japanese characters and culture in ways that the 1980 series was not, foregrounding those characters’ points of view and their presence as drivers of the plot. And the accuracy the show embraces in details as small as gestures and fabric colors makes it a striking recreation of some parts of historical Japanese culture.It does include changes — some modernized language, for example, or stylistic omissions — to make it understandable to modern viewers around the world. But its commitment to authenticity makes “Shogun” a compelling lens through which to examine television’s role in interpreting and portraying history, as well as how actors inherit and embody history and culture in their performances.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Anna Sawai Breaks Down Her Dior Met Gala Look

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      The actress caps off a winning awards show season by changing up her look.After a series of head-turning red carpet looks during this year’s awards season, Anna Sawai is ready to bring her style to her first Met Gala.The “Shogun” actress, who won Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards for best actress in a drama television series, grabbed the attention of the fashion world in a series of gowns that tastefully exposed skin and pooled elegantly around her feet.So, even though she was not quite expecting to get an invite to fashion’s biggest event so quickly, it did seem like a fitting final stop on her whirlwind red carpet tour.“The Met is the place where you can have the most fun,” Ms. Sawai, 32, said on a video call from a hotel room on the Upper East Side on Sunday, “because it’s a heightened version of the red carpets that we get to do.”For the event, Ms. Sawai opted for a white blazer and trousers from Dior. She’ll top the look with a wide-brimmed hat by Stephen Jones — tilted ever so slightly to cover her right eye for a “mysterious look,” she said. In the ensemble, she said she felt like she was tapping into a new side of herself: “I feel like every carpet, I’ve only worn dresses.”“This is going to be the first time that I’m getting to kind of channel my androgynous side,” she added. “And I’m really excited to pay respect to Black dandyism.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Best Red Carpet Fashion At the Emmys: Jennifer Aniston, Ayo Edebiri & More

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      For people who like to look at clothes, there have lately been many opportunities on red carpets and off. Movie stars were in the spotlight at film festivals in Venice and Toronto. New York Fashion Week brought industry players and followers to parties, front rows and the city’s streets. Pop stars had their night at the MTV Video Music Awards.On Sunday, it was the TV world’s turn with the Emmy Awards. The event took place less than a year since the last Emmys ceremony in January, but the shorter-than-usual interim did not affect the spectacle of the red carpet.Actresses like Selena Gomez, Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph radiated sleek sophistication in black dresses that hugged curves and showed skin. Actors like Andrew Scott, Lionel Boyce and Dan Levy, who hosted the ceremony with his father, Eugene, chose modern interpretations of classic penguin suits. Over-the-top costumes worn by a group of contestants from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” amped up the camp.The fashion on the red carpet at the 76th Emmy Awards ran the gamut, but these 16 looks were among the most notable — for good reasons and bad.Jennifer Aniston: Most Familiar!Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesA career spanning more than four decades has taught the actress, a star of “The Morning Show,” a thing or two about red carpets. Among them: It is hard to go wrong with a simple silhouette like that of her columnar, beaded Oscar de la Renta gown.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More