Starring Richard Chamberlain and Japanese screen icon Toshiro Mifune, the show’s six-month Japan shoot was initially budgeted at $12 million but swelled to $22 million ($83.7 million in today ...

Viewers will get a better understanding of Japan and its people than in the 1980 TV miniseries based on the same book. "If we were going to re-do it, we wanted to do our own version," said Sawai.