The Go Masters I was reading around on a popular Go discussion board, and found a thread that had a link to download a movie based on the life of a famous Go player that was very interesting, Go Seigen. He has a controversial past, and during the time depicted in the movie, he is forced to make a choice between his homeland and his adopted family in Japan when war breaks out between the two counties. The historical and cultural background here is pretty rich, and recent enough that the subject of the movie is still alive.

I found an agreeable and informative review of the movie here, and I remember that either this movie or another with a similar title recently toured through the Seattle International Film Festival although I was forced to miss it. “The movie is a melodrama on an epic scale, an Asian “Gone With the Wind,” filled with romance and action but built on a foundation of Eastern philosophy.”

“There is also a genuine strength in the story, and in the feeling of epic history that it evokes. The movie employs a novel solution to the fact that most viewers don’t have the slightest notion of how to play Go; the story doesn’t require any such knowledge. Instead of showing individual moves, it evokes the incredible concentration of the players and then depends on their personalities away from the board to develop the story.”

I would recommend the film to anyone interested in watching something of this description, and reading into the background of the game depicted during the movie gives a look into the rich cultural and historical traditions embedded into the game of Go. There are some minor syncing issues but since the film is subtitled this is not overly disturbing. I will likely also put the movie file up somewhere else for download in case this copy becomes unavailable in the future.