Go (2001)

Profile

• Movie: Go
• Director: Isao Yukisada
• Writer: Kazuki Kaneshiro (novel), Kankuro Kudo
• Producer: Mitsuru Kurosawa
• Cinematographer: Katsumi Yanagijima
• Release Date: October 20, 2001
• Runtime: 146 min.
• Genre: Best Film-Movie of the Year / Award Winning-Teen / Award Winning-North Korea / Award Winning-Zainichi Korean
• Production Company: Toei
• Distributor: Toei
• Language: Japanese
• Country: Japan

Plot

Sugihara (Yosuke Kubozuka) was born and raised in Japan, but he’s ethnically a Korean-Japanese. His father (Tsutomu Yamazaki) emigrated from North Korea and eventually married a Japanese woman (Tsutomu Yamazaki). His father was a very good boxer back in North Korea and trained his son boxing from an early age. The training would prove very helpful.

Sugihara started his education by going to a North Korean school in Japan. The curriculum emphasized strict Marxist ideology favored by the North Korean regime. Sugihara did not agree with the curriculum and, literally, marched his way into the local public high school. When Sugihara arrives at his new school he has to deal with boys who challenges him to fights daily and a beautiful girl (Kou Shibasaki) who takes an interest in him.