With no attempt made to even explain the basic rules of Go, this is essentially a study of forehead-kneading concentration, of how to shut out even the most tempestuous of world events.
Comment
03/28/08
The Go Master (2006)
69 %
Reviews Counted: 13 Fresh: 9 Rotten:4 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Rated: NC
Theatrical Release: 28-03-2008
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Chen Chang, Sylvia Chang
Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang
Reviews
1 - 13 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top Critic
The rapturous camerawork and Chang Chen's performance as Wu both delight, but there's little insight into what makes a game about white and black pebbles so utterly absorbing.
03/28/08
This soporific stupor and final pinch of defeat is the experience that most fully equates with watching this film.
03/28/08
Top Critic
Chang captures Wu’s dedication and respect for a game whose intricacies reflect the vicissitudes of his own life.
03/27/08
Top Critic
Featuring a game whose practitioners cultivate friendships rather than rivalries, in a time and a place where conflict was otherwise all too easy to find, The Go Master is a biopic of rare subtlety, delicacy and stillness.
03/26/08
Top Critic
Impressively shot in ’Scope, it’s a considerable achievement, possessed of a tranquil beauty and sagacity.
03/17/07
Top Critic
As the subject for a film biography, there would seem to be a great deal of material there, but screenwriter Ah Cheng and director Tian Zhuangzhuang make a botch of it.
07/14/07
Under Tian Zhuangzhuang, one of China's leading directors, The Go Master unfolds as meditatively as a game of go.
03/15/07
Tian Zhuangzhuang's biopic is a stately and respectful reflection on the life of Wu Qingyuan, one of the 20th century's top players of go, a Japanese game said to rival chess in complexity.
03/14/07
Top Critic Top Critic
More an example of fifth-gen pageantry than anything by Zhang or Chen.
10/14/06
The film is structured as a series of tableaux with little connective tissue.
10/14/06
Top Critic1 - 13 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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