Ôgon no hibi (1978)

At its time being 1978 Ogun No Hibi was regarded as one of the most expensive Taiga Drama's . It was the first Taiga to be filmed outside of Japan as part of the story involves the Philippines as well as Jesuit missionaries . Boasting an all star cast it tells the story of a group of merchants and commoners in the port city of Sakai during the reigns of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu . The secondary story is the thief Ishikawa Goemon who starts off as a childhood friend of Hideyoshi but obviously their lives go in different directions until the inevitable ending . It's still to this day regarded as one of the all time greatest Taiga Dramas but sadly it was never subtitled in English . NHK did not start subbing them for the export market until 1982's Tokugawa Ieyasu . If you are familiar with the history of that era it's easy to follow . Shogun fans can catch Yoko Shimada as Gracia Hosokawa which was the inspiration for the role of Mariska which she played in Shogun two years later .