zeilmann.a

Go was a surprise at Berlin FilmFest. A wild - at times bloody - story about a guy from the North Korean community in Japan, who tries to find out what his roots are and where he belongs to. Sugihara speaks Japanese, he looks like an ordinary Japanese punk and has Japanese friends - but he is different. He feels alienated from his parents and his background, he hates the rigid rules at the North Korean college he is attenting (chanting, marching and being beaten up by a strictly communist teacher included), but he's got no clue how to meddle into Japanese society. So he does best provocating others much to the anger of his father a former boxer, who has very special methods of education. What most people don't know, there are strong reservations in Japan against the Koreans in the country, so in the course of the events Sugihara hits some walls, especially when he fells in love with a Japanese girl, and doesn't dare to tell her the truth. A strong example for "New Japanese Cinema". Watch out for this director!

Elling is a heart-warming story about two seemingly retarded guys from a mental institution who are given an apartment by the Norwegian welfare-state two try a normal life. Even the easiest things are a challenge to them, shopping, using a phone, crossing a restaurant-floor for the men's toilet. But step by step the audience is tempted to ask itself who the real mad ones are: Elling and his friend or the "civilized" outside-world. A story full of hope and quiet irony, lacking any moralizing or sarcasm. There's a joke among the other Scandinavian countries: The thinnest book in the world is one about Norwegian humor. Maybe the book is a bit thicker now.