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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
teen-flick with intelligence, 13 February 2002

Author: matt-559

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.

8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
well done representative of "cool" Japanese cinema, 26 March 2003

Author: andmorris (andmorris@vassar.edu) from Poughkeepsie, New York

I love this movie. Not only is Yusuke Kubozuka the man but this movie is just done really really well. It is a very good combination of stylistically surreal scenes such as the basketball scene and the race against the train, along with a plot that delves into issues that are very prevalent in Japanese society. A good friend of mine has experienced quite a bit of this prejudice in Japan being of partially Korean descent. It's actually been a little while since I've seen the movie so I can't really comment on too much of the specifics, but I just remember it as being a very intense experience that came through on a number of levels, combining an interesting love story, cool action sequences, humor, social commentary, and a coming of age story all into one amazing movie. Also it was great to see the actor who played the father again because he was so cool back in "Tampopo".

7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
sweet movie with a good message, 9 April 2005

Author: kwongers from USA

I liked this movie, although I didn't love it. The film centers on the prejudice experienced by a Korean teenager living in Japan; he doesn't fit in with Koreans or the Japanese. But he utters many times in the film, "This is my love story," and while he does have a love interest, it is a rather small part. I liked how this film looked at the different tensions of race, life, and love.

The acting was pretty great. The lead actor was very convincing as the teenager who is conflicted between two identities. He overacted the last scene, but there is this one very beautiful scene where he just sits and talks to a police officer. It's pretty awesome: very simple and beautiful. Kou Shibasaki as his love interest is pretty good as well, and she won the Japanese equivalent of the Oscar for her role in this. She makes the most of the relatively short amount of screen time she has, and we can see why the main character would fall in love with her.

Not the best Japanese movie I've ever seen, but still pretty good. Worth your while. 7/10

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Fast and furious teen-drama, 6 March 2002

Author: zeilmann.a from Berlin, Germany

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!

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
This is my love story, 15 January 2005

Author: penguinopolipitese from Canada

When I first saw this movie I was kind of turned off by it. It can be kind of confusing the first time around. But as with most good things it gets better with time and familiarity. The movie basically revolves around a Japanese born but fully north Korean teenager who struggles to find his place in society and come to terms with his tough father. As a Japanese-born Korean or "zainichi" he often feels alienated both by Korean and Japanese culture. The movie follows the trials and transformations in his life and his desire to find who he is and where he belongs. I think a lot of people who are the second or third generation of immigrant families will really get this movie. It's like being stuck between two worlds sometimes. But regardless of background people will be able to relate to the story (manic as it is). If you like say fight club, you will probably like this movie. There are quite a bit of action and fight sequences, a lot of introspection, and also romantic elements. The movie tends to segregate these elements to some extent which makes the film seem lop-sided but in the end everything balances nicely. This is probably one of my favourite movies, Japanese or otherwise.

12 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Great example of how patriarchy is still prevalent in Japanese films, 11 November 2005

Author: heinen04 from United States

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.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The Smell of Kimchi, 27 August 2006

Author: Meganeguard from Kansas

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Director: Yukisada Isao Duration: 122 Minutes

Almost two years ago in my War and Memory in Japanese Film Class I watched a film called Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence by the controversial film director Oshima Nagisa. One memorable scene in this film, amongst many others, is the cruelty displayed played by Sgt. Hara, Beat Takeshi, towards an imprisoned soldier named "Kanemoto." However, this is not the soldier's real name. He, like thousands of other Korean men, was forced to adopt Japanese names, because of the difficulty for the Japanese to pronounce Korean names, and serve in the Japanese military. Of course, this character comes to a pretty brutal end. Having to write a paper comparing one of the films in the class with another, I decided to compare how the Other is represented in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Yukisada Isao's Go and let me say that it was indeed an eye-opening experience.

Sugihara seems like a normal enough Japanese high school kid. He goes to class, plays basketball, reads books that his friends lend, etc. However, there is something different about Sugihara: he is not Japanese, but Korean, and not South Korean, but North Korean. Attending North Korean school until the time he enters high school. Sugihara spent his school days marching, learning the ideologies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and participating in classes devoted to self-criticism, which basically consisted of the teacher Mr. Kim beating students who broke the rule of speaking Japanese in school, but after he gets caught by the police after he and his friend Tawake and Wonsu attempt the Super Great Chicken Run, Sugihara ran in front of a train without getting killed, his father changes the family's nationality to South Korean, and soon after Sugihara decides to attend a Japanese high school. However, things do not go easy for our hero.

Being a Korean, although born and raised in Japan, Sugihara is bullied at his new school. However, unlike many who are bullied, Sugihara knows how to fight from studying boxing with his father and after a particular fight where he takes on the school's entire basketball team; he becomes the target of students who want to prove themselves as fighters. He defeats all of them quite easily.

The ideas of race and nation never crossed Sugihara's mind until one night at a birthday party for his friend a girl named Sakurai shows considerable interest in him. As their relationship grows, the burden of revealing his Korean heritage begins to weigh heavily on Sugihara. However, he is afraid that revealing his background will destroy the precious relationship he has developed with Sakurai.

When Iwai Shunji released Swallowtail Butterfly in 1996 considerable interest within Japan's film industry was placed on minorities in Japan and films such as Yamamoto Masashi's Junk Food were created. However, almost four decades before similar issues were taken up by Oshima Nagisa in Death by Hanging and Imamura Shohei' My Second Younger Brother and more recent films tackling the issue include Sai Yoichi's, of Korean stock himself, Blood and Bones. However, where most of these films are quite serious, Go is a quite enjoyable film filled with humor while not becoming too didactic as a social commentary. The first half of the film is truly a delight with Sugihara's unusual relationships with his parents and the growth of his affection for Sakurai. The second half of the film tries to be a bit heavier and it sometimes comes off as being a bit forced. However, Go is a valuable film in introducing viewers to one group of Japan's little known minorities.

7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
stylish, 19 March 2002

Author: kleaner from South Korea

I liked this film. The topic of the could have been very heavy but this movie is fast and enjoyable, like "Trainspotting". The first part of the film is very stylish, especially the basketball court fighting scene and "Super Great Chicken Run" scene.

Unlike the beggining scene, however, the later scenes are bit slow and a bit boring. The acting is really good. The main actor played the Korean-Japanese guy very realistic even though he isn't one of them.

The use of the Shakespeare's quote at the beginning of the film represent the theme of the film very well. Who cares about the nationality? It's important to be truthful to who I am.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
I really liked this film, 5 December 2007

Author: Whudepuck from United States

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.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
This is a story about love, 17 July 2005

Author: Leska from Germany

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"This is a story

about my love." With the movie GO young Sugihara (wonderfully portrayed by Yôsuke KUBOZUKA) tells his story-the story about his life, the story of a generation, of two nations, but most of all a story about his love. He tells his story in his own speed, his own pictures-sometimes fast forwarding (but never hectic), sometimes in slow motion, he speeds forward, he looks back, yet doesn't lose count. GO for freedom It's not easy being Sugihara--raised as a Zainichi, a Korean who lives in Japan, by a father (helplessly lost: Tsutomu YAMAZAKI) who usually speaks with his fists and who'd rather be a Spaniard, a mother (secretly unhappy: Shinobu OTAKE) who is always trying to run away and this time maybe for good; his friends live in constant war with society (and the police). Violence is a daily routine, at home and at the North-Korean school Sugihara attends, where corporal punishment is a legitimate way of teaching and speaking Japanese is strictly prohibited. So Sugihara tries to fight through, constantly angry, constantly hostile. GO for love But something changes when Sugihara starts to visit a Japanese school, to outrun his patriotic teachers and their brainwashing methods, and first meets Sakurai (lovely: Kou SHIBASAKI) who decides that he should become her boyfriend. Sugihara's attention turns from violence to Shakespeare, but the anger grows to live among people whose intolerance is only exceeded by it's ignorance. And he learns that he will have to fight for acceptance-with words, with bare knuckles and maybe all alone, because Sakurai turns away from him when she finds out he's not Japanese. But he also understands that nobody is really free from prejudices, when one night he meets a young Japanese police officer who actually listens to him. GO to fight „No soy coreano; ni soy happones; jo soy desaraigardo" (I'm neither Korean, nor Japanese, I'm just grass without roots), Sugihara explains to his father and tells him about his future plans: He wants to attend College, wants to take a chance on his life. But most of all, he wants to accept and respect himself, for that, he understands, is the necessary first step. And because GO is a film about love, Sakurai returns to him, having overcome the xenophobia indoctrinated on her by her father, giving their love another chance. GO is fast, GO has speed, GO has action, GO has humour and GO has love. Director Isao YUKISADA characterizes a generation, a society, a nation and creates something unique: he lends the desperate his voice, that is loud enough to be heard without pointing fingers. GO is like it's protagonist-fresh, energetic and hungry for life; unwilling to give in to his fate.

c by Leska Beikircher

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