Go

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!

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.

It was rather good and I'm sure everyone has some idea of prejudice especially at school. Perhaps more in some countries and maybe especially in Japan that I know of. Unfortunately this rather happens in many Japanese films and this one is a bit too long. Yosuke Kubozuka is rather good as the bullied boy and his father Tsutomu Yamazaki who seems to like hitting lots of people and particularly his son and as with many films in this country much shouting as well. Kou Shibasaki is splendid as the young girl and is interested in the poor guy while we wonder if there will be something between them even if he is not of "pure" Japanese blood.

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

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.