Go

i saw this film at the berlin film festival where it was part of the 'panorama' showings (not in the actual competition itself). it was perhaps unhelpfully billed as a film about the 'taboo of relationships between japanese and koreans'. i wouldn't say that it was particularly about that at all - more like a teenager's struggle for identity.

i found it to be an excellent film. funny, touching and well-played. it deserves some international success.

Go was a surprise at Berlin FilmFest. A wild - at times bloody - story about a guy from the North Korean community in Japan, who tries to find out what his roots are and where he belongs to. Sugihara speaks Japanese, he looks like an ordinary Japanese punk and has Japanese friends - but he is different. He feels alienated from his parents and his background, he hates the rigid rules at the North Korean college he is attenting (chanting, marching and being beaten up by a strictly communist teacher included), but he's got no clue how to meddle into Japanese society. So he does best provocating others much to the anger of his father a former boxer, who has very special methods of education. What most people don't know, there are strong reservations in Japan against the Koreans in the country, so in the course of the events Sugihara hits some walls, especially when he fells in love with a Japanese girl, and doesn't dare to tell her the truth. A strong example for "New Japanese Cinema". Watch out for this director!

It's not as fast-paced as you'd expect a movie called GO (remember ALL CAPS when you spell the film name) to be, but it's definitely effective as a mostly grounded coming-of-age drama with a few slightly surreal/heightened scenes here and there. It unpacks a type of prejudice you don't often see in film (or at least I haven't seen before), and I think it feels appropriately empathetic and is also pretty well-acted throughout.

There were some great moments throughout - just enough to keep my interest, even though I didn't find it to be the most absorbing thing 100% of the time. I think if you find yourself in the mood for something a little slower than most other movies out there, and like a good character-focused/coming-of-age drama every now and then, GO should scratch an itch; you should almost certainly GO ahead and watch it.

First of all, I loved this movie--loved it. It is a great portrayal of how strict the laws are against "aliens" in Japan. Told from the point of view of a Japan-born Korean Sugihara, Sugihara endures torment and the possibility of lost love simply because he is a Japan-born Korean. It does not matter that he attends a Japanese school (so that he is able to attend University as Korean schools are not recognized by Japanese higher education), speaks fluent Japanese, and has never even been to Korea, he will never be recognized as a Japanese citizen and thus must have his "papers" on him at all time. Despite how fresh and innovative the topic of discriminated foreigners is portrayed in the film, the female characters are discriminated against just as much as any Japan-born Korean. To put it bluntly: all of the female characters--all of them--are idiots. Sugihara's mother, while providing some comedic relief, is stupidly naive. Sakurai's mother asks questions after they've already been answered and discussed in her presence--as though she is too dim to understand. A friend of Sugihara believes everything that she is told no matter how ridiculous. Patriarchal comments are made about women such as "She couldn't cook but she was really cute." Perhaps the most disappointing female character of all is Sakurai--the main female character of the film. Apparently, even in modern-day Japanese films, the female love interest has to be a neurotic--much like many American films'female love interests. She charms the audience not through her wit or intelligence, but through her peculiarities. This would almost suffice if there was not such a let down in knowing that her attraction to Sugihara stemmed from the fact that he beat people up. A woman impressed by male strength--how original. Even in the end when Sakurai proves to think for herself after all, the beauty of her realization is upstaged by Sugihara's screaming at her. For such a brilliant, beautiful film with such clear-cut messages about being born into discrimination, there should have been at least one female character who was not discriminated into the category of being too dumb to identify with simply because she is a woman. A very big let-down for such a great work.

I had to watch this film for an university class. I liked how the main character was neither this nor that- He was neither Japanese, nor Korean. Neither South nor North. At the end of the movie he seems to accept that he is a Japanese born Korean, which shocked me. What shocked me more was that he was temperamental to all hell, but he was shown actually applying to schools and whatnot. While this movie does embody some patriarchal strains, to classify it as a "sterotypical Japanese" film would be incorrect as it is a movie told from a teenage boy's perspective. The quirks that the main female character has is a quality that endears her to him. Likewise, it is his ability to act out of context with societal roles that endears him to her. She admits to being attracted to his eyes after a fight- because they symbolized the wildness she sees in him. It's a sweet romantic film. Would I read deeper into it? No. Nice, sweet, fluffy and dramatic, but in the end it illicits the same "aw" if you can overlook the mixed in sadness, anger, and violence that subtly permeates the film.