On Thursday, July 11, the Houston Chronicle highlighted Houstonian film maker and hit FX series Shōgun director, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Jr. Born in Houston to Ghanaian parents and raised in the city's southwest area, Osei-Kuffour’s experiences as a first-generation African-American and his love for Japanese language and culture lead him to directing one of the best Shōgun episodes to be aired, episode 8: "The Abyss of Life.”
Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Jr.'s journey from Houston to the hit FX series Shōgun took him to Stanford University, Kyoto, Singapore, and back to Japan. What started as a passion for al. things Nintendo ultimately landed him a spot directing a show about a country and culture he has grown to love.
On Sunday July 14, Osei-Kuffour shared some of that love when he showed and discussed the Shōgun episode he helmed, "The Abyss of Life," at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The episode is among the best of the series (which was conceived as a limited series but has now been renewed), a taut, suspenseful mini-drama of gamesmanship and tested loyalties with massive repercussions for the story as a whole.
I always felt a little out of place because I was never African enough, but I also didn't have as much exposure to Black American culture growing up because of the fact that my mom and dad were immigrants. So these stories about feeling like an outsider, feeling this disconnect, were very powerful to me. That's all they talk about in Japanese film, but they tell these stories in really emotionally impactful ways."
-Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour
"The Abyss of Life" is an intricate episode that allows Osei-Kuffour to show his chops with intimate scenes fraught with political and personal subtext. In the key scene, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) appears to be giving in to his rivals on the Council of Regents and ceding his authority, a decision that dismays his allies, particularly his oldest friend and general, Hiromatsu (Tokuma Nishioka). As the two men face off in a room full of allies, Hiromatsu, unsure if Toranaga's capitulation is merely a ruse, threatens to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide by disembowelment.
The moment builds, thick with a tense ambiguity that infuses the entire episode. "That tension was very intentional," Osei-Kuffour says. "I really wanted everybody, from scene to scene, to really lean into every pause, every action, every decision that Toranaga makes. In many ways, the audience is the samurai clan. We're being manipulated the same way the clan is being manipulated."
Osei-Kuffour's time in Japan taught him to live in a state of heightened observation, spotting potential stories and miniature dramas everywhere he looked. It's a land that contains multitudes of culture and personality, much of it just beneath the surface. In this sense, it reminds him of his native city, where he still owns a home (near Trill Burger, which he frequents whenever he's in town).
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