The Family Game

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This article is about the Yoshimitsu Morita film. For the 1960s game show, see Family Game.

The Family Game
Film poster
Directed by	Yoshimitsu Morita
Produced by	Yutaka Okada Shirô Sasaki
Written by	Yohei Honma (novel) Yoshinori Kobayashi Yoshimitsu Morita
Starring	Yusaku Matsuda Juzo Itami Saori Yuki
Cinematography	Yonezo Maeda
Editing by	Akimasa Kawashima
Distributed by	Circle Films
Release date(s)	June 4, 1983
Running time	107 min.
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

The Family Game is the English title of Kazoku Gēmu, an award-winning 1983 Japanese film by Yoshimitsu Morita. This black comedy dealt with the changing dynamics of home life in Japan at that time.

Japanese critics interpreted the movie as a comment on the misplaced priorities of middle-class life in Japan — the family in The Family Game relates to each other not as human beings, but in terms of the social roles they are expected to take on, and the pressure of these social expectations further accelerates the breakdown in their communication. It was voted the best movie of the year by Japanese critics and won several awards. Although it failed to win the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture, it won the award for Newcomer of the Year.

[edit] Plot summary

The Family Game presents an exaggerated look at the family structure of the time through the Numata family. The father (Juzo Itami) is a distant, alcoholic salaryman who cannot relate to or exert any influence on his family. He is angry that his second son, Shigeyuki (Ichirota Miyagawa), is not as academically successful as his older brother (who is himself only modestly successful in that regard). The mother (Saori Yuki) is a powerless housewife who pampers Shigeyuki. Shigeyuki only finds a measure of success when Yoshimoto (Yusaka Matsuda), a college student, is hired as his tutor — and literally slaps sense into him, forcing him to spend hours every day studying both academic subjects and self-defense. When Shigeyuki eventually gets into a good school, Yoshimoto turns the victory party into a spectacle of food-throwing and violence.