Movies

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

Table of contents

Before 1960

1942 - There Was a Father (Chichi Ariki) by Yasujiro Ozu - [ext] Imdb entry
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. -Akahige
1951 - Early Summer (Bakushû) by Yasujiro Ozu - [ext] Imdb entry
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. -Akahige
1954 - Godzilla by Ishirô Honda - [ext] Imdb entry
a few seconds of a Go scene somewhere in the first five minutes.
1957 - Heaven Knows Mr. Allison by John Huston - [ext] Imdb entry
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!
1958 - Black Mansion Cat (Borei kaibyo yashiki) by Nobuo Nakagawa - [ext] Imdb entry
In this japanese horror movie, the ghost of a cat-woman is haunting a house because long ago, during the Edo period, a Go master was murdered there. This Go master was killed by a lord to whom he refused to lose on purpose. After he plays a few severe moves which the lord asks him to take back, which he refuses, he is brutally murdered and falls dead on the goban, spilling blood on it (which reminded be of the haunted goban stained with blood in Hikaru no Go - seems to come from old japanese ghost stories). The lord is then haunted by the ghost of the Go master (some Go stones stained with blood fall from the ceiling of his room onto his goban). The Go master is mentionned as a Meijin. -Akahige

1960 - 1969

1962 - Hatari! by Howard Hawks - [ext] Imdb entry
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 - An Autumn Afternoon (Sanma no Aji) by Yasujiro Ozu - [ext] Imdb entry
Another film by Ozu in which a couple of Go games are played. Because of Ozu's famous "tatami-camera" style, the games cannot be seen, though. -Akahige
See [ext] snapshots
1962 - Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô) by Akira Kurosawa - [ext] Imdb entry
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". -Akahige
See [ext] snapshots
1964 - Kwaidan (Kaidan) by Masaki Kobayashi - [ext] Imdb entry
In this the first of the four distinct stories of this famous japanese ghost film, a lord's wife leaves the go game she was playing, saying that she's getting bored of always playing the same game (in fact she seems to be bored by her whole life).
See [ext] snapshots

1970 - 1979

1970 - Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (Zatôichi abare-himatsuri) by Kenji Misumi - [ext] Imdb entry
21st entry in the Zatôichi series in which the famous blind swordsman plays a Go game against a yakuza boss which is also blind.
Source (in french) : [ext] dvdclassik (with a snapshot of the game)
1976 - Thousand Miles Escort directed by Tsan Hong Tsu
wuxia film which features, among other villains, a pair of go-playing brothers who are hired to kill the protagonist and the orphan he protects.

1980 - 1989

1982 - Mikan no Taikyoku ("The Go Masters")
by Ji-shun Duan, starring Sun Dao-Lin
1983 – Le Faucon (The Hawk) by Paul Boujenah – [ext] Imdb entry
In the opening sequence of this French thriller, the main character drops his gun on a goban, disrupting the game layed out, probably suggesting he studied a game the previous evening.
1984 - Dangerous Moves (Foreign film Academy award winner)
The incumbent chess champion is shown playing Go between match games.
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.
Warning: the film portrays war atrocities and the brutality depicted may prove too realistic for many viewers. Not for everyone's taste. For more info see the [ext] wikipedia entry or [ext] IMDB entry.
1989 - Heathers by Michael Lehmann [ext] Imdb entry
a goban is seen in Wynona Rider's character's bedroom.

1990 - 1999

1990 - Come See the Paradise by Alan Parker [ext] Imdb entry
Starring Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita (Karate Kid II). Men seen playing Go in club setting, and again later goban and bowls seen in internment camp.
1991 - Ranma ½ The Movie, Big Trouble in Nekonron, China by Shuji Iuchi - [ext] Imdb entry
This anime feature showcases, among a number of other villains, a set of go-playing twins whose moves on the goban are mimicked on a gigantic board with colossal stones falling from the sky. The film's protagonist defeats the twins by simply jumping atop the fallen stones, knowing that they cannot play upon an occupied intersection.
1992 - Pushing Hands (tuī shǒu), Taiwan by Ang Lee - [ext] Imdb entry
Paeivis: The movies seems to have two scenes in which Go game can be noticed. First is a game in the house of the family, between father and son I heard, second is a truly short glimpse in the mist of mahjong games while panning to the Tai Chi lesson led by main character.
1993 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III by Stuart Gillard - [ext] Imdb entry
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.
1994 - Fist of Legend (Jing wu ying xiong) by Gordon Chan - [ext] Imdb entry
In this Jet Li's movie, there is a sequence where the ambasador of Japan in Shanghai and a Karate master are playing go.
1996 - Balance of Power by Rick Bennett - [ext] Imdb entry
lame Billy Blanks martial arts movie where the stereotypical bad asian rich guy played go with the stereotypical bad asian fighter guy. When the stereotypical bad white business guy mentions chess, the bad rich guy says something to the effect that chess is for intellectual snobs while go is for warriors.
1997 - Pi by Darren Aronofsky
1998 - Restless by Jule Gilfillan [ext] Imdb entry
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.
1999 - Rurouni Kenshin - Tsuioku Hen by Furuhashi Kazuhiro - [ext] Imdb entry
In one scene, Kogorô Katsura, one of the chief of the samurais that fight against the Bakkufu (Shogun) is playing go with his wife (or geisha ?).

2000 - 2009

2000 - [ext] Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long)
In the first minutes, Yu Shu Lien and Jen Yu have tea sitting at a go table, putting the cups (sacrilege!) on the table.
2001 - A Beautiful Mind by Ron Howard
2001 - Hikaru no Go by Shin Nishizawa - [ext] Imdb entry
2002 - Hero by Zhang Yimou
See [ext] snapshots
Interestingly, played in the rain, on a large stone monument-like board, with the stones placed in the squares rather than on the intersections. The stones are placed using a spatula-like tool.

Patrick Taylor: Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't Chinese go of this time (the Warring States Period) have featured the star-point stones? None of the boards in the movie feature them. On the plus side, it appears that there are an equal number of black and white stones on most of the boards shown.

ottomated: It also appears that the boards are too small, by my count they are 8x8(if counting the squares, not the intersections) with a row of smaller squares at each end. Considering the size of the board they must be playing othello and not go, othello boards are generally 8x8, and the small squares at the ends may be for keeping score. Now that I look at the pictures again it can't be othello because the board position would not be legal if it were.

2003 - Onmyoji 2 by Yojiro Takita - [ext] Imdb entry
Abe no Seimei is playing a Shikigami in the form of his friend Minamoto no Hiromasa as a monk.
2004 - After the Sunset by Brett Ratner - [ext] official website - [ext] Imdb entry
A crime comedy starring Pierce Brosnan, Woody Harrelson and Salma Hayek. The film includes a scene where Piers Brosnan and Salma Hayek's characters are playing a game of what appears to be Go. The board position appears highly artificial, although the stones are at least played on the grid intersections. It has been suggested that the game being played was actually Tanbo, for which the board position seen in the film would appear more natural. There is no official word on this.
2004 - The Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji) by Katsuhito Ishii - [ext] Imdb entry
In this very nice japanese film, one of the main characters plays in a highschool go club. Several important scenes are shot in the go club and around go games. -Akahige
2004 - Avitar (Cyber Wars (USA title)) - [ext] Imdb entry
A Matrix-like society where everything is controlled by a few individuals trying to maintain their rank and status in "the game" (weichi).
2005 - Duelist (Hyeong-sa) - Korean Swordfighting movie where the Villain, who conspires against the government, plays go. [ext] Imdb entry
[ext] youtube link
2006 - 棋圣 吴清源 (Kisei Go Seigen) also known as The Go Master ( Wu Qingyuan ) by Tian Zhuangzhuang - [ext] New York Film Festival - [ext] Imdb entry
Film about the life of Go Seigen, based on his autobiography. see also [ext] http://www.xs4all.nl/~rongen17/Cho/Player/Goseigen.html.

gougou?: Anybody has a copy? I searched all sorts of torrents without much luck.

2006 - The Host (Gwoemul) - Korean Monster movie, like jaws [ext] imdb
Go can be seen about 27 minutes into the movie when the TV is turned on and the channel is changed. -baltimore
2007 - The Warlords (Tau Ming Chong) - [ext] imdb
Two old generals are playing Go and using their moves to refer to the fate of General Pang(Jet Li) at the same time
2007 - The Yakiniku Movie Bulgogi (Purukogi) - [ext] Imdb
The old master cook and his friend are constantly playing or pondering the game of Go in the background, without a single move played during the movie.
2008 - War Games
The Dead Code [ext] imdb : A straight to video sequel of the 1983 War Games. When the computer is being bombarded with online games, popups of go games can be seen among games of chess, checkers, etc.
2009 - The International (Dima) - [ext] Imdb
In a scene in Jonas Skarssen (antagonist) house, he is playing Go with his son. He makes a comment about the strategic depth of the game, precise quote:"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought". A few moments later, he asks his son "What does one do when there's no way out of a situation" to the reply "...the best thing is to find a way further in". The exchange can be interpreted as part of Go wisdom.
2009 - The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) - [ext] Imdb
There is a short dialogue on the origin and philosophy of go. Another scene shows a match of go including a "full screen" go board.

2010 and onwards

2010 - Tron Legacy - [ext] Imdb
Quorra explains that Flynn Sr. is teaching her the game. A board is shown for two seconds. (See also [ext] USGO)
???? - The Shogun
BBC drama-documentary about the Samurai general [ext] Tokugawa Ieyasu (Wiki page shows goban too). He overthrew the governing dynasty of Japan and became the Shogun - the supreme military leader - of Japan.

Links

See also

Varia

  • A History Channel documentary ("The Destroyer", Battle Stations) shows a few seconds of Japanese WW2 submariners playing Go on the floor of an obviously cramped space (approx. half-way, look for the [ext] Maine Potato incident).

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