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THE SURROUNDING GAME tells the story of Go, the world's most ancient and enigmatic game. Following the lives of three young Americans vying to become the first Western professional Go players, the film explores the search for meaning that Go represents to its players, for whom the game is a distillation of consciousness itself.


FILM SYNOPSISThe ancient game of Go is the most complex and elegant game ever discovered. For three thousand years, master players in East Asia have handed down the game as an art form to foster patience, creativity, and self-reflection. Today in the elite world of the pros, international tournaments offer hundred-thousand dollar prize purses, and top matches are broadcast on 24-hour "Go TV" to millions of fans in China, Korea, and Japan. In the West, most people have never heard of the game… until now.THE SURROUNDING GAME follows the lives of three young Americans vying to become the first-ever Western professional players. Quirky, cerebral, and disillusioned with conventional views of success, they represent a new generation of players, on the doorstep of adulthood. As the competition intensifies and intricate patterns spill out across the board, the line between reality and imagination starts to blur. Their thoughts turn to anxieties about the future, and lead them on a journey through the game’s ancient past to ask what it means to live a meaningful life. Through an intimate portrait of these young players and interviews with the greatest Go masters of all time, the film explores the search for meaning that Go represents to its players, for whom the game is a distillation of consciousness itself.


ABOUT GOGo is the ultimate game of pure strategy. Two players, black and white, take turns placing stones on the intersections of a 19x19 grid. The goal is to surround as much territory as you can. If a group of stones is completely surrounded on all sides by the opposing color, it is captured and taken off the board. The player with the most points of territory at the end of the game wins.All the intricate and beautiful patterns of Go derive from these simple rules, as groups of stones intertwine and spread across the board, competing for space.

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