Go (2001)
| Go | |
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| Directed by | Isao Yukisada |
| Produced by | Mitsuru Kurosawa |
| Written by |
Kazuki Kaneshiro Kankurō Kudō |
| Starring |
Yosuke Kubozuka Kou Shibasaki Shinobu Otake Taro Yamamoto |
| Music by |
Yôko Kumagai Hidehiko Urayama |
| Cinematography | Katsumi Yanagishima |
| Edited by | Takeshi Imai |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Go is a 2001 coming-of-age movie, directed by Isao Yukisada, based on Kazuki Kaneshiro's novel of the same title, which tells the story of a Japanese-born North Korean teenager Sugihara (Kubozuka Yōsuke) and a prejudiced Japanese girl Tsubaki Sakurai (Kō Shibasaki) whom he falls for.
Third-generation Korean, Sugihara, is a student at a Japanese high school after graduating from a North Korean junior high school in Japan. His father runs a back-alley shop that specializes in exchanging pachinko-earned goods for cash, which is stereotypically a “common” zainichi occupation. His father had long supported North Korea, but he obtained South Korean nationality to go sightseeing in Hawaii, which required a South Korean passport.
Sugihara’s school days are filled with fights that always result in his victory; he and his delinquent peers fill the rest of their time with all kinds of mischief. His best friend, Jong-Il is a Korean high-school student who had been his classmate in junior high. When Sugihara decided to leave Korean schools for a Japanese high school, their classroom teacher called him a traitor to their homeland. However, Jong-Il supported Sugihara by saying: “We never have had what you call homeland.”
One day, Sugihara attends the birthday party of one of his friends and meets a mysterious Japanese girl whose family name is Sakurai (she is reluctant to use her first name). He takes her out on a couple of dates and they gradually become intimate. However, tragedy strikes when Jong-Il is stabbed to death by a Japanese youth at a railway station. Jong-Il mistakenly thought that the youth was about to attack a female Korean student at the station. The boy, who is carrying a knife, attacks and kills Jong-Il. Sakurai comforts Sugihara, and that night they attempt to make love. She freezes in bed, however, when Sugihara confesses that he is Korean. She declares that she is afraid of a non-Japanese male entering her, and Sugihara leaves.
In the meantime, Sugihara’s father has been depressed by the news that his younger brother died in North Korea. In an attempt to provoke him, Sugihara blames his father, stating that the second generation of zainichi, with its sentimentality and powerlessness, has caused the zainichi much grief and difficulty. They fistfight, and the result is Sugihara's complete defeat. In the wake of the fight, Sugihara finds out that the true reason for his father’s adopting South Korean nationality was that he wanted to make his son’s life easier.
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