[film] Tokyo Newcomer

“Under my umbrella~ ella~ eh, eh, eh”

Tokyo Newcomer [東京に来たばかり ] is a film about a Chinese student and amateur baduk player who arrives in Japan. He’s still struggling with Japanese, doesn’t know anyone, and has no job; when he drops his baduk stones by accident, he meets an old lady who lives in a village close to the city and travels up and down to sell vegetables she grows. Soon, he builds up a familial relationship with her and her estranged grandson.

The movie is simply beautiful, though if you’re used to Hollywood style exposition and grandeur it will be a very different experience. The way the movie flows is slow and quick at the same time, but every scene is lives in the moment. I loved this film, not only for the young-baduk-player storyline, but for the poetry it espouses.

Also, until YouTube-slash-Google take it down, you can watch the entire film on YouTube with English and Chinese subtitles:

Spoiler alert (small one…)

Part of what I really liked wasn’t just the beautiful scenes, but the old lady; it is rare to see a woman baduk player portrayed in such a strong way. The anime Hikaru no Go is one example of women in relation to the game being portrayed as less capable (or in this specific case, just plain bad and stupid) than men. The issue of gender in Go is one that is discussed quite a bit (though, unsurprisingly, lacking depth and mostly by men) on Sensei’s Library, and recently at the Cape Town Go Club; overall, the world of baduk is a reflection of broader society, lacking proper representation on the top due to prevailing gender norms and stereotypes… Of course, the game in general sees under-representation by anyone not male, which leads to sexism at times remaining unaddressed. So I loved to see this unassuming grandma being revealed by the end as a brilliant baduk player and lecturer; her entire storyline is what really drew me to the movie, and I loved the actress’ portrayal.

Don’t mess with grandma

[serie] Misaeng – upcoming K-drama

Tagline reads: “on the baduk board of life, no stone is worthless”

So I just found out that in October this year a new K-drama is set to premier, all about baduk; the drama is based on the popular web comic Misaeng [미생], meaning “Incomplete life”. Apparently the comic is quite popular and is available on Daum for a small price per issue, about 1 000₩; I have no idea how to pay for it though, so it is fairly inaccessibly unless you’re in Korean or have access to a Korean bank account, or know how to break into the Daum website.

The story is basically about a failed pro-baduk player who falls into a depression and then tries to get out of it, slowly picking up his life. As he takes job at some company, and is all existential about his future, he learns to apply the lessons he learned from baduk to his life.

I wish I could read the web comic, but that is won’t happen because a) I can’t access it, and b) my Korean sucks harder than a [***censored***] So basically I am waiting for the adaptation to premier end this year, and find a way to get it… “somewhere”. Considering the cast and crew I am quite excited about it. Production is in the hands of the same guy who did Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and in the lead roles Kang So-ra and Im Shi-wan… which, unless you watch K-dramas often, doesn’t mean really that much. Just take my word for it, as you should on lots of things.

I love the premises, the lessons of baduk and how they can be applied to life in general; and while baduk related movies have been released in recent years (e.g. The Stone, The Divine Move, Tokyo Newcomer, The Go Master, etc.) I hope a TV series will be able to go more in depth in terms of the details and complexity of the game. At the very least I have a double excuse to procrastinate in life by watching this for the purpose of improving my Korean language skills and for improving my baduk skills, whether it’d actually help with any of that is really besides the point. For those understanding wanting a preview, and understanding Korean, here is a web prequel that was released a while back:

Kim Satgat – Baduk

This a post on a blog I follow by Kuiwon, who translates Classical Chinese poetry by Koreans as a hobby. This poem specifically is part of a series he did on traditional games, and explores baduk (or gi [기, 棋], as it often appears in compounds, such as the Korean name of the Korean Baduk Association: Hankuk kiwon [한국기원])