It was produced in 1999[4] as a graduation piece at the Japan Film School[5][6] and won four awards including the Grand Prix at the Pia Film Festival (PFF) 2000. It is Lee Sang-il's directorial debut, before his first feature film two years later. It is also the debut work of cinematographer Shin Hayasaka.[7][8]
Cast
Yang Dae-song (Korean: 양대송; Japanese: ヤン・デソン) - Masato Hidekazu
Cho Hyun-Ki (Korean: 조현기; Japanese: チョ・ヒョンギ) - Ryuji Yamamoto
Lee Chong-bok (Korean: 이종복; Japanese: 李鍾福) - Naohiro Ariyama
Dae-song's father - Tsutomu Yuzawa
Dae-song's mother - Kintohime
Yang Song-mi (Korean: 양송미; Japanese: ヤン・ソンミ) - Yuka Shimizu
Suzuki - Hiroshi Nishikawa
Principal - Reiichi Ogiso
Baseball club manager - Takaya Fujiwara
Female teacher - Wu Xing-hime
Male teacher - Ike Yoshihide
Convenience store clerk - Kazuhiko Koshikawa
Ms. Saito - Asami Saito
Omiya Ana - Ikuyo Kimura
Pupil in the class - Kazuaki Kubo
Pupil in the class - Koji Moyama
Pupil in the class - Naomichi Koike
Delinquent of the underpass - Ryota Tokunaga
Delinquent in the underpass - Sadaharu Yashiro
Title
The title character, 青, means blue in Japanese (read "ao"), and reads "chong" (which also means blue) in Korean. The sign was chosen as the title because, in Japan, the word Chong is a derogatory term for Koreans in the country. The film is therefore sometimes referred to as Ao - Chong or Blue - Chong.[9][10]
A DVD version was released by Geneon on April 7, 2006.[4][15]
Reception
The film "skillfully manages to approach the difficult subject of the Korean minority in Japan through a charming and very involving story about a man between two nationalities", according to Nippon Connection.[1]
Chong was also said to be a "groundbreaking (production) in the way (it) expressed (its) the self-approach of Korean-Japanese or zainichi Koreans with rich humour. This subject matter, which in the past could only be expressed in a dark and serious way, was here skillfully expressed in a light-hearted and funny way".[16][17]
The film alludes to elements in the life of the director.[18]
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