One of those movies

In 2000 (or around that time) i saw Doug liman´s film GO, and loved it. A couple of days ago i saw yet another film entitled "GO" (2002), a japanese film directed by unknown (to me) director Isao Yukisada. I bought the film at sale for something like 3 euros, and it was part of a batch of films i bought solely on the fact i knew i had missed some movies over the years, and these movies i was gonna purchase were some movies i probably wouldnt give a chance when stressing around the videostore. Anyhow, to the film.


Not in a long time, have i been so pleasantly surprised, and convinced that theres more than a truckload of golden moments forgotten out there. GO has totally regained my faith not only in asian movies (that arent horror or anime), but movies in general. A wonderful film, that leaves no genre or style untouched. GO is foremost, as stated several times in the opening scenes of the movie (wink wink): A love story. Though a love story, thru violence, happiness, racial disputes, onto action, drama, comedy, noir and poetry.... hmmm.... its actually quite hard to describe. Let me just point out that this film doesnt leave any emotional or visual nooks undiscovered.

A love story... seen from the perspective of a troubled but quite conscious korean boy, born and raised in a straight thinking "robotic" japan, not only by the means of a strict korean school (in japan) but also thru the violent family ties upon his disciplinary father - an ex-boxing champion constantly trying to physically motivate him to live his life the right way. From here on, tragedy, weirdness and love consistantly weaves a breathtaking 2 hour experience around a sequence of golden moments.



I was entrigued by the title of the film, so i tried google´ing the meaning of the word GO. A japanese wiki page on a boardgame called the same as the film, suggested that the word Go meant something like "game of surrounding" or "enclosing game". Thru another search i discovered that Go-con (japanese slang supposebly) means something like "Hanging out" (in a specific area). Interesting, and quite possibly a very wisely intended chosen title for the film.



Last words.... See this film!!!!