Tian Zhuangzhuang's (The Horse Thief, The Blue Kite) The Go Master is a restrained, thoughtful biopic on the life of Wu Qingyuan considered by many to be the greatest player of the game Go in the 20th century and one of the greatest of all times.
Born in China in 1914 and later moving to Japan, he quickly rose to prominence becoming an unbeatable master. Wu's life was often at the mercy of political and social upheavals, Japan's colonisation of Manchuria and invasion of China in the 1930s, the Pacific War in the 1940s and the Cold War in the 1950s yet despite these apparent setbacks he dominated professional Go for more than a quarter of a century.
'The Go Master' is the story of Wu's complex inner life and a man who despite the odds - being buffeted by nationalism, militarism and the forces of history - became the greatest player who has ever lived.