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September 16, 2024 
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It's not exactly news to see a remake of a popular movie or TV series — everything from "Hawaii Five-O" to "Ghostbusters" has been resuscitated in a new form in the past decade or two. But "Shogun" — the FX series that dominated the Emmys on Sunday night, adding four more wins, including Outstanding Drama Series, to bring its record total to 18 Emmys for a single season — is a notable remake not so much for how the series differs from the 1980 original but for how much the audience does.
Before we discuss that version of "Shogun," which was also a huge pop-culture phenomenon, it's worth recalling a less-celebrated film from that era titled "Gung Ho." A 1986 comedy directed by Ron Howard, it starred Michael Keaton, George Wendt (Norm from "Cheers") and Gedde Watanabe and told the tale of a crew of American autoworkers whose failed plant is bought by a Japanese company. After much culture-clash high jinks, involving chopsticks and forced calisthenics, the workers, led by Keaton, overcome their apprehension and learn that there's more that unites the two cultures than separates them.
"Gung Ho" hardly seems like a progressive movie in hindsight but it's a fascinating cultural relic. The 1980s featured enormous American anxiety about the rise of Japan as an economic rival, which often found expression in pop culture, such as the Michael Crichton novel "Rising Sun." The original "Shogun" centered on the character of a Westerner stranded in a seemingly strange and alien land. But as Matt Alt explains in his essay published this weekend, the ensuing decades — in which young Americans became familiar with, and often entranced by, Japanese culture, through anime, manga, video games and influential films and TV shows — primed today's audience for a version of "Shogun" that doesn't treat Japan as an enigmatic rival.
Pop culture has the ability to reflect and encapsulate our national attitudes and anxieties — but also the power to shape and change them. For evidence, look to this new version of "Shogun," which tells a rich and nuanced story of Japanese history, one which American audiences have embraced — and, now, celebrated.
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