Love for the Motherland. Masters of Go begins and ends with the same Go scene, but 32 years pass between them. War, death and disease separated by family fate. The film is a melodrama of epic scale, Asian Gone with the Wind, filled with romance and action, but built on the basis of Eastern philosophy.
The film begins in 1929 with a visit to China by Japanese champion Go, an Asian board game considered by some to be deeper than chess. He is dating his Chinese counterpart but is more impressed by his youngest son's playing abilities. So after a few years, the young Chinese boy is given the opportunity to visit Japan and live with the master, learn the game and train with the best players. In the 1930s, war was declared between Japan and China. ..
This is the first joint film in the history of Japan and China, the film was attended by both Chinese and Japanese directors, producers, editors, composers. The filmmakers have made incredible efforts to recreate their historical periods, and it is worth seeing only for sets and costumes. The scenes are filmed on city streets meticulously prepared to look like the Chinese and Japanese cities of the 1930s and 1940s, and there are dozens of small details of everyday life that highlight this.
The essence of the film is that if wars could be fought on Go boards rather than on battlefields, we would all be much happier, blood would not spill, and couples in love could live forever in each other’s arms.
10 out of 10