The Asian Saga - Adaptations

Adaptations

As of 2006, four installments of the Asian Saga have been adapted for film or television:

• King Rat, released in 1965, starred George Segal and was nominated for two Academy Awards for Art Direction and Black and White Cinematography.
• Shōgun was adapted by NBC as a television miniseries in 1980. Starring Richard Chamberlain, Toshirō Mifune and Yoko Shimada, the production was one of the highest rated programs of its kind ever broadcast. The nine-hour miniseries was edited down to two hours for a theatrical release in 1981. The miniseries was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, winning three including Best Limited Series. It also won three Golden Globe Awards.
• Tai-Pan was released as a theatrical film in 1986, starring Bryan Brown and Joan Chen. The film was a critical and box office failure.
• Noble House was adapted as a TV miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan in 1988 and was also a ratings success. It updated the timeframe of the novel from the 1960s to the 1980s and took many liberties with key points of the novel (for example, Ian Dunross became a bachelor who had a romance with Casey Tcholok).

Although there were press reports in the mid-1990s that a miniseries adaptation of Gai-Jin was planned, no production eventuated.