Movies

    Keywords: Culture & History

The following movies make a reference to the game of Go.

1942-[ext] There Was a Father (Chichi Ariki) by Yasujiro Ozu
At the beginning, the main character, a teacher played by Chishu Ryu, plays go with a friend. Later on, the same character meets that same friend he hadn't seen for 20 years while playing in a Tokyo go club.
1951-[ext] Early Summer (Bakushû) by Yasujiro Ozu
Twice in the movie, we can see a doctor (Chishu Ryu) playing Go with a friend. We can't see the games, but we can hear them talking about a seki.
1954-Godzilla
a few seconds of a Go scene somewhere in the first five minutes.
1957-Heaven Knows Mr. Allison
by John Huston: Deborah Kerr plays a proper, devoted, caring nun and Robert Mitchum plays an unsophisticated, uneducated, somewhat crude, but kind-hearted Marine. They end up stranded together on an island overrun by the Japanese during World War 2. Trying to steal food, Mitchum is forced to wait through a game of Go. Great!
1962-Hatari ([ext] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056059/)
which some might believe could be related to Go (especially with title uttered in my French accent). Interestingly, "hatari" means "danger" in Swahili, so a protolinguistic connection with Japanese (see also [ext] http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/False%20cognate)?. ilanpi
1962-[ext] An Autumn Afternoon (Sanma no Aji) by Yasujiro Ozu
Another film by Ozu in which Chishu Ryu can be seen (twice) playing a go game with some friend.
1962-[ext] Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô) by Akira Kurosawa
As far as I can remember: In a sequence, the main character, Sanjuro (Toshirô Mifune), can be seen a few times standing or resting near a goban. I think that goban is more than a piece of furniture, since the whole sequence is dealing with strategy in a local war between clans. I guess Sanjuro is resting near a goban in order to focus on the fact that he can be seen as a "strategy master".
1982-Mikan no Taikyoku ("The Go Masters")
by Ji-shun Duan
1983-The GO Masters
starring Sun Dao-Lin
1988?-残酷大浩劫 (Hei tai yang 731 xu ji zhi sha ren gong chang)
C.S. Graves: Go equipment appears in a few scenes of the T.F. Mous film Hei Tai Yang 731: Man Behind the Sun (aka Men Behind the Sun). There is a goban on the floor of the geisha house General Ishii visits. A shattered ceramic bowl filled with Go stones inspires his "low temperature pottery bomb". Later, in a dinner scene, Ishikawa and the medical painter are playing go before debating the morality of their squadron's experiments on the Chinese people, or "maruta" as they were often called. (see also /Discussion)
1989-[ext] Heathers
a goban is seen in Wynona Rider's character's bedroom.
1997-Pi
by Darren Aronofsky
1998-[ext] Restless
Catherine Kellner plays Leah. Leah is adrift, restless. Landing in Beijing after a string of flights from failed romances, she falls in with other expatriates. A chance encounter with a young weiqi master she saw on TV leads to... well,let's stop there and not spoil it.
2001-A Beautiful Mind
by Ron Howard
2002?-棋圣 吴清源 (Kisei Go Seigen)
recent movie about Go Seigen: shot in China 2002 with his approval. see also [ext] http://www.xs4all.nl/~rongen17/Cho/Player/Goseigen.html.
2002-Hero
by Zhang Yimou
2003-Onmyoji 2
Abe no Seimei is playing a Shikigami in the form of his friend Minamoto no Hiromasa as a monk.
2004-[ext] After the Sunset
a lame crime comedy starring Pierce Brosnan, includes a scene where he is inexplicably playing a game of what appears to be Go with his horribly miscast girlfriend, Salma Hayek. Once again, the producers failed to hire Bob Myers, the noted local Go consultant, resulting in a highly artificial-appearing board situation. However, a close-up reveals that they were actually playing the stones on the intersections.
2004-[ext] The Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji)
In this very nice japanese film by Katsuhito Ishii, one of the main characters plays in a highschool go club. Several important scenes are shot in the go club and around go games.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
Samson: I just noticed the other day that Go is in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. It's very brief. There is a short shot of Splinter sitting with one of the Japanese men that came to the future and there is a goban in front of them. Looks like random pieces though (there are more white pieces on the board then black). Nothing really too big or important, but I found it interesting.

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