Go (2001)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Isao Yukisada

Writers:

Kazuki Kaneshiro (novel)
Kankurô Kudô (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 October 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Teenage Love | Dead Boy | Subway | Stabbed In The Throat | Racism

Awards:

41 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Yôsuke Kubozuka	...	Sugihara
Kou Shibasaki	...	Sakurai Tsubaki
Shinobu Ootake	...	Michiko (mother of Sugihara)
Tsutomu Yamazaki	...	Hideyoshi (father of Sugihara)
Hirofumi Arai	...	Won-su
Mitsuru Murata	...	Katô
Takato Hosoyamada	...	Jeong-il
Min Kim	...	Naomi
Gye-nam Myeong	...	Staff member of South Korean embassy
Taro Yamamoto	...	Tawake
Ren Osugi	...	Taxi driver
Sansei Shiomi	...	Mr. Kim
Masato Hagiwara	...	Policeman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anri Ban	...	Kaori
Ginpuncho	...	Sakurai's mother
Mitsuru Hirata	...	Film star
Atsushi Ida
Hikaru Ijyuin
Ryuzo Ishida
Tomoko Ishikawa
Takeshi Kikuchi
Maria Kitazawa
Ryôsuke Koshiba
Ayaka Maeda	...	Girl with Dog
Atsushi Matsuda
Asami Mizukawa	...	Korean in the tube station
Takeshi Nakajima
Gouki Nishimura
Rina Takagi	...	Sakurai's sister
Yoji Tanaka
Kanji Tsuda	...	Henchman of Kato's father
Kôichi Ueda	...	Kato's father

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | South Korea:15 | Germany:16

Company:

Toei Tokyo

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sugihara and Tsubaki visits the schoolyard the second time Sugihara jumps the fence. He grabs the bar to the right of the post. In the next shot his hands are to the left.

Fast and furious teen-drama

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!