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Plot
Sugihara, the protagonist, is a third-generation Korean, a student in a Japanese high school who graduated from a North Korean junior high school in Japan. His father runs a back-alley shop that specializes in exchanging pachinko-earned goods for cash — a stereotypically “common” zainichi occupation. In the past, his father had long supported North Korea, but he obtained South Korean nationality in order to go sightseeing in Hawaii (or at least so it is depicted initially — but see below), which required a South Korean passport.

Sugihara’s school days are filled with fights that always result in his victory; he and his delinquent peers fill the rest of their time with all kinds of mischief. His best friend, Jong-Il is a Korean high-school student who had been his classmate in junior high. When Sugihara decided to leave Korean schools for a Japanese high school, their classroom teacher called him a traitor to their homeland. However, Jong-Il supported Sugihara by saying: “We never have had what you call homeland.”

One day, Sugihara attends the birthday party of one of his friends and meets a mysterious Japanese girl whose family name is Sakurai (she is reluctant to use her first name). He takes her out on a couple of dates and they gradually become intimate. However, tragedy strikes when Jong-Il is stabbed to death by a Japanese youth at a railway station. Jong-Il mistakenly thought that the youth was about to attack a female Korean student at the station. The boy, who is carrying a knife, attacks and kills Jong-Il. Sakurai comforts Sugihara, and that night they attempt to make love. She freezes in bed, however, when Sugihara confesses that he is Korean. She declares that she is afraid of a non-Japanese male entering her, and Sugihara leaves.

In the meantime, Sugihara’s father has been depressed by the news that his younger brother died in North Korea. In an attempt to provoke him, Sugihara blames his father, stating that the second generation of zainichi, with its sentimentality and powerlessness, has caused the zainichi much grief and difficulty. They fistfight, and the result is Sugihara's complete defeat. In the wake of the fight, Sugihara finds out that the true reason for his father’s adopting South Korean nationality was that he wanted to make his son’s life easier.

Six months later, on Christmas Eve, Sugihara is studying hard in preparation for the college entrance examinations. He is trying to fulfill the wishes of the deceased Jong-Il, who always wanted him to go to a (presumably Japanese) university. Sakurai calls him after a long period of silence between them and asks him to come to the place where they had their first date. In this last scene, they recover mutual affection and leave for some unknown place together in a light snowfall.

Other Media
The film is based on a novel by Kazuki Kaneshiro, a zainichi Korean himself, also entitled Go. It was published in 2000 by Kodansha, and received a Naoki Prize.

Reception


The film received a simultaneous theatrical release in Japan and South Korea, and was the first joint Japanese and South Korean production. It was also the first major film to challenge existing preconceptions about Japanese identity within the commercial format of a young adult romance film. The film explores not just the issue of prejudice, reflected in Sakurai's unconscious racism, but that of racial identity in general.

The film has received some criticism for its focus on the individual racism that its protagonist suffers from, in comparison to the deeply ingrained and institutionalized racism, ensuring that even after several generations of residence, many Koreans are still refused Japanese passports.

Other Japanese films have also tackled the issue of prejudice in Japan, usually treating Koreans as the victims, such as Nagisa Oshima's Death by Hanging and Kohei Oguri's For Kayoko. All Under the Moon is another film with a zainichi Korean director, and treats the zainichi Korean ethnicity as a condition admitting no easy solution.

In playing the role of Sugihara, actor Kubozuka Yosuke comments on his experience, “In GO, Korean Japanese Sugihara’s identity was born because of the system of the society. Since I was born in Japan and I have been taking it for granted, I didn’t think about it.”

Before playing Sugihara in the film, he was surrounded by an environment where everyone is Japanese and everyone takes that for granted. But after knowing the other in his own society, he internalized the nationalistic sentiments of the Japanese. Having discovered himself as nationalist, Kubozuka tried to rebel against what he sees as “uncool Japan” that doesn’t have its own pride at all. In 2002, he produced a movie named Kyouki no Sakura or Madness in Bloom, in which he acted a role of young nationalistic neo-Nazi in Tokyo.

Awards
The film has received numerous awards.
 * 2001 – Hochi Film Awards – Best Film
 * 2001 – Nikkan Sports Film Awards – Best Director; Best New Talent
 * 2002 – Japanese Academy Prize – Best Cinematography; Best Director; Best Editing; Best Lighting; Best Screenplay
 * 2002 – Blue Ribbon Awards – Best Director
 * 2002 – Kinema Junpo – Best Director; Best Film; Best Screenplay
 * 2002 – Mainichi Film Concours – Best Screenplay; Sponichi Grand Prize New Talent Award (Yôsuke Kubozuka and Kô Shibasaki)
 * 2002 – International Film Festival of Marrakech – Best Actor; Golden Star (Isao Yukisada)
 * 2002 – Palm Springs International Film Festival – FIPRESCI Prize (Isao Yukisada)
 * 2002 – Yokohama Film Festival – Best Director; Best Film; Best Screenplay