For anyone who has Netflix, "The Go Master" has just been added to their instant-view options.

Movie info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Go_Master

Not in Ireland and I assume the UK as well.

Bummer. Sorry to get your hopes up. I'll note then "at least in the U.S."

Nah, I'm pretty used to "X coming to Netflix" not appearing on the Irish service. Silly geolocking of content.

added to my queue

Groovy, thanks for tip. In the queue!

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

Cool. Just watched it.

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Central Mississippi Go Club
http://www.cmgo.org

What did you think of it? I downloaded it a few months ago and watched it then so I would be interested in your opinion.

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我が道を行く。
I'll do it my way....

It was a pleasant enough mood piece, worth watching if only to see the face of the actress who played the protagonist's wife (seriously cute) and a few memorable scenes from 20th century Go history.

It was often unclear where he was and sometimes what was even going on, and one could argue that the movie had nothing to do with Go (except from a certain historical perspective). Very little effort seemed to have been put into making the viewer care about what happened in a compelling way.

The cinematography was at times really lush and beautiful, which I appreciate.

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Central Mississippi Go Club
http://www.cmgo.org

I just watched it last night and I have to agree with you. The movie just felt flat and unemotional. The historical events seemed to be the focus, but even those were not very well explained. If you did not already understand some of the things, then you would be very, very lost. An example is when Tokyo is getting firebombed. If you didn't know about firebombs you would be asking yourself "Why is everything suddenly on fire now?"

I also agree his wife was very pretty. It is a shame he was so unemotional about her. I also got the vibe from the movie that he didn't really like Go that much. He seemed (in the movie) to feel pressured into playing and had no real love for the game, he was just doing what was expected of him, Like he had a duty to play because he was good.

It should be worth noting that I didn't watch it on Netflix, I watched a fan-sub version on Youtube, So I cannot attest to the quality of the translation, However there was never any dialog that felt out of place or strange, So I have to assume that it was accurately subtitled.

I would say it is worth watching, If you know nothing of Go Seigen or his life, But it won't awaken a new found love for him, or for the game of Go, which is sidelined.

Now, Has anyone seen the 1980's film "The Go Masters?"

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Lose 1,000 games? Challenge Accepted.

Also saw the movie. It wasn't that good. The story did not focus on go and was quite confusing at some points, but I caught on. Although the movie failed to emphasize go, it did provide a nice historical background. If the movie is accurate, then I learned much about Go's life and the hardships he had to overcome.

Of course, the movie is not really about Go-the-game, but rather its about the life and times of Go-the-player (who also happens to be a master at playing go, which has shaped -- or perhaps interfered with -- everything else in his life).

While I agree that if your not already somewhat familiar with Go Seigen's story and other events in history, this movie becomes hard to follow. I had to watch it two or three time to help better shape my perspective and understanding of that history. For example, it gave me a completely different perspective on Kitani Minoru than I originally had from extremely limited English language sources.

Its been well documented that several, if not many pros have expressed their hatred for the game, and wished they could go back to a time when the game was fun.

As a brief, and perhaps still incomplete biography on Go Seigen's life, I find it interesting how, in his search for ultimate fulfillment (if that's what it was), that the religious leaders he looked up to, kept "pushing him away" from pursuing their way of life, and instead were pushing him back towards the game of go, where his gift appeared to be. His destiny that he couldn't escape.