James Christopher
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From
March 27, 2008
The Go Master
Cert 12A, 104 mins
The Go Master by the Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang is an epic tribute to Wu Qingyuan, greatest exponent of that ancient board game, Go. For a master of strategy, Wu had precious little when it came to organising his own life. He left China to perfect his skills in Japan and spent most of his life fighting TB, running away from enemies during the Sino-Japanese wars, and being hopelessly brainwashed by a priestess with mad delusions of grandeur.
It is a biopic that is almost impossible to warm to despite Chang Chen’s performance as the great man, and Tian’s fastidious attention to the period details. The film gives no inkling why Wu was such a gifted player, the rules of the game, or Go’s almost religious grip on its monk-like champions.
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In the Far East you can reasonably expect everyone to know the rules of Go just as you can reasonably expect almost everybody in the West to understand how to play Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe).
Noughts-and-Crosses was used in the 1980s film "Wargames". I wonder if Eastern reviewers complained that nobody bothered to explain its rules?
David B. Wildgoose, Sheffield, ENGLAND