GO

Sugihara is a Japanese-born teenager of Korean descent, a so-called zainichi, who has spent his life navigating a society that treats him as an outsider. He attended a Korean school, and after graduating he decides to enroll in a Japanese college. At a party he meets a Japanese girl, Sakurai, and the two begin to grow close. What she does not know is that he is not Japanese, and he is afraid to tell her. A phone call from his closest friend, who says he has something terrible to share, marks a turning point in Sugihara's life.

GO was directed by Isao Yukisada, the first of his features listed here, followed by Jam Films (2002), Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004), River's Edge (2018), Revolver Lily (2023) and Kaede (2025). Kankuro Kudo wrote the screenplay, and the film was produced by Mitsuru Kurosawa, Hiroshi Deme and Tatsuya Kunimatsu for TV Tokyo, Tokyo FM, Toei Video Company and Toei Tokyo. Yosuke Kubozuka plays Sugihara, also known as Lee Jong-ho, alongside Ko Shibasaki as Tsubaki Sakurai, Shinobu Otake, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Taro Yamamoto and Hirofumi Arai among a credited cast of twenty-two.

The drama, which runs just over two hours, was released in Japan in October 2001. On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.4 out of 10 from 89 votes.