In the latter part of the 19th century, Japan opened up for trade with the West. Merchant adventurers arrived from all over the world, many of them English. Some traded in silk and rice and lived in enclaves around the "treaty ports." They brought their families and their followers and created private mini-empires where they tried to embrace this extraordinary culture, its beauties and its dangers

Kenneth Branagh is to reunite with his Wild Wild West co-star Kevin Kline for another William Shakespeare movie adaptation. Kline has joined Bryce Dallas Howard, Janet McTeer and Alfred Molina as part of the cast of actor/director Branagh's reworking of As You Like It.

Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer will play beloved British leader Winston Churchill and his wife Clemmie is the sequel to award-winning TV biopic The Gathering Storm. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire star Gleeson will take over from Michael Gambon, who played the former Prime Minister in 2002's The Gathering Storm, in Churchill At War.