Japanese people may be fond of Korean food, and Korean people fond of Japenese films and music, yet, historical relationships between the two countries have long been difficult and discrimination on both sides is still more or less part of the social landscape. Isao Yukisada’s GO explores the painful fate of a Korean-Japanese young man torn between love and hatred, exclusion and integration. Director Yukisada talks about the personal aspects and striking images of his film which was Japan’s submission to the Oscars for Best Foreign Film.

What were your feelings and thoughts about anti-Korean-Japanese discrimination before making the film?

I myself have a story about a Japanese-Korean boy. When I was a child, I had a friend who was Korean-Japanese. He suffered from discrimination as in the film. I tried to help him but I couldn’t, and one day he was beaten up to death. And I really felt sorry about his death. So the story of GO is really meaningful for myself.

Did you think about what had happened to your friend when you read the novel?

Yes, I thought about my friend. My friend died because of discrimination. Yet, in the novel, the main character of Sugihara stands up and fights, he has set up a clear line of action, a future for himself. That was really helpful for me, because in a way I could redeem myself through the attitude of this character, Sugihara.

In what way do you feel it might be possible to fight discrimination of this kind?

I think the roots of this kind of discrimination problem are in the fact that we Japanese people are actually not aware enough of that kind of problem. Our generation, like myself, feels nothing about this problem, we don’t think there is discrimination among us. But as a matter of fact, in reality, there is. It may not be very visible, but there is and we don’t recognize it. Yet, we can actually find discrimination in our everyday life and the meaning of GO is to make people recognize it as a fact. That’s the meaning of making GO.

Did you decide by yourself to make GO or was it a director-for-hire proposition?

I actually got an offer. In fact, more than 20 movie companies fought over the movie rights to the book. A friend of mine, who is a producer, recommended that I read the novel. When I read it, I felt it had a very good, speedy tempo, but it seemed difficult to turn it into a movie, because the novel is actually like a monologue. I felt the producers wanted that book because it was a best seller, but they didn’t imagine that it would be difficult to adapt it. They just saw the text, not the images. As you know, producers don’t make films themselves, directors make them! (Laughs)

So how did you set about working on the adaptation?

Actually, the first script was also very much monologue-driven. And the scriptwriter just said to me: ‘Now, it’s all up to you!’ (Laughs) So after that, I had to imagine how Sugihara would actually move, behave. Then I could imagine that Sugihara’s main dream was to go beyond all borders, so I thought about symbols that expressed going beyond borders, like the scene in which he tries to fly and hits the fence, and also the scenes where he walks along the white line, or when he jumps over the school fence. Those scenes are all connected with the idea that he wants to go beyond borders.

Did you meet the author prior to making the film and what kind of conversations did you have?

Before I met him, I thought that we would talk only about serious problems and topics, but when I first met him, actually we talked about whether directors date actresses and that kind of petty things! (Laughs) So I felt relieved and we really became friends. I think that he has already wiped out discrimination borders for himself. He showed me through his attitude that there were no more borders for him.

The author of the novel is himself Korean-Japanese. Did he also suffer from discrimination like your friend?

He told me for example that he had problems with the police, like in the film. There is a scene in which police patrol officers tell Sugihara and his friends to move out, that they’re scumbags. That’s a scene that I heard from him and which, actually, is not in the novel.

Shifting the subject, I know you’ve been assistant director to great director Shunji Iwai, so I would like to ask you what kind of relationship you’ve had while working at his side? Was it like a mentor-apprentice relationship, do you feel you’re treading in his footsteps now? It’s interesting to note that his movies often deal with «aliens», people suffering from their differences…

Yes, you’re right. I think Iwai is a very singular director in Japan. He destroyed the style and concept of old Japanese movies, like you can see in his shooting style and choice of themes. Iwai has done things that other people had never done. He once said to me: «Now I feel I’ve destroyed everything in Japanese film and when I look upon the land of ruins that is left, I feel that I cannot rebuild it, I can only look at the ruins without doing anything. But after that, you, Isao, have started reconstructing a great part of Japanese cinema’. I felt very happy with what he said to me, it was very impressive. I myself once helped him to destroy the world of old-style Japanese movies and I think that Iwai gave us a new land for Japanese cinema, and upon this new land I could make something new. This is the real relationship between Iwai and I.

Robin Gatto & Yannis Polinacci
Translation : Tadayuki Okubo