In the absence of FX's much-lauded Shōgun series, HBO Max brought in its own gripping live-action jidaigeki adaptation this year in the form of Song of the Samurai. Instead of the Sengoku period, the series jumps forward in time to late-Edo period Kyoto and takes an action-oriented approach to the story of the Shinsengumi, Japan's secret police made up of elite swordsmen to protect those tied to the shogunate. Its beating heart is former street fighter Hijikata Toshizo (Yuki Yamada), who forms an unlikely brotherhood with Kondo Isami (Noboyuki Suzuki) and Okita Soji (Kanata Hosoda) that is tested in the fire of betrayal, war, and illness. Now that the Japanese drama has found a foothold in the U.S., its source material is finally about to get the translation it has long deserved.
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