The Go Master (2006)

A Chinese man becomes an expert player of the traditional game of Go.

Director:

Zhuangzhuang Tian

Writer:

Cheng Ah

Stars:

Chen Chang, Sylvia Chang, Akira Emoto

3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Chen Chang	...	Wu Qingyuan
Sylvia Chang	...	Shu Wen - Wu's mother
Akira Emoto	...	Kensaku Segoe
Aki Fujî	...	Mrs. Segoe
Mansaku Fuwa	...	Matsutaro Shoriki
Yi Huang	...	Wu Qingying
Takayuki Inoue	...	Shusai Honinbo
Yoichiro Ito	...	Kaoru Iwamoto
Ayumi Itô	...	Kazuko Nakahara
Ryûki Kitaoka
Xuejian Li	...	Li Yutang
Keiko Matsuzaka	...	Fumiko Kita
Kaho Minami	...	Jikou Son
Takashi Nishina	...	Minoru Kitani
Hironobu Nomura	...	Yasunari Kawabata

Storyline

A Chinese man becomes an expert player of the traditional game of Go.

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Plot Keywords:

game of go | tuberculosis | sect | motocycle accident | master | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Japan China

Language:

Mandarin Japanese

Release Date:

17 November 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Go SeIgen: kiwami no kifu

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$16,004

Company Credits

Production Co:

BDI Films Inc., Century Hero Film Investment Company, Hakuhodo

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Belief and I-Go

Some people take this movie dull and slow-paced. The truth is that on the contrary it goes very fast, blitz.

Maestro Wu leads a legendary life and dominated the Go world for at least twenty years. He beat every single possible Go player and finished the famous Jubango, in total twelve tournaments, ten games per tournament. All these were condensed to one scene, one passage, one sentence in the movie. The last battle scene against the Honinbo Takagawa. It shows how the director arranged the movie and what he targeted on. Not win or lose, but belief (faith) and Go which supported Wu along the life path and armed him for the inevitable turmoil.

You will find the same set-up again and again, a shabby house. Yet watch closely that the tone color changes and becomes bright when Wu was mentally reborn. And then the beautiful Japan seashore as in the painting.

Wu's mentor said, as a Go player, you should die on the board. It is him who insisted the Honinbo tournament should be held during the war time.You will find the game in Hiroshima went on right after the bombing. In a sense a Go player is a samurai fighting on the board. He must obey the honor code.

Yet a Go player has to retire or retreat once he is not able to win. A very cruel fact Wu had to accept. Then he became a mentor and eventually an ordinary man, who lives peacefully. No more wars, Wu reconciled with himself and the movie leads us back to the first scene philosophically.

The drawback of the movie is that it IS fragmented. It introduces a lot of people without even telling you their names. I highly doubt that if you are not familiar with Wu, you can recognize who is who, for example, Kita Fumiko in the beginning of the movie. Though it is not the main point at all, since the director cut all the dramatic parts of Wu's achievements.

The movie is centered around how to be stern and humble. It is universal; the director used Go as an interface and Wu as an example.

I as a mathematician want to remind you that the Go rules are simple yet there are no matching models. It is much harder a problem than Chess. Currently we only know the ending part. See http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Go-Chilling-Gets- Point/dp/1568810326/ref=sr_1_1? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375725931&sr=1-1&keywords=berlekamp+go.