The Family Game

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 Shirō 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 minutes
Language	Japanese

The Family Game (家族ゲーム, Kazoku Gēmu) is a 1983 Japanese movie directed by Yoshimitsu Morita. It focuses on a dysfunctional middle-class nuclear family—each family member is connected not internally, but through the social roles they are expected to take on, and the pressure of these social expectations further accelerates the breakdown in their communication. The Family Game received several awards including the best movie of the year as selected by Japanese critics. Although the movie missed the Japan Academy Prize for the Best Picture (losing out to The Ballad of Narayama), Ichirōta Miyagawa was awarded Newcomer of the Year.

Plot summary

The Numata family consists of the father, Kōsuke (Juzo Itami); mother, Chikako (Saori Yuki); and two sons, Shinichi (Jun'ichi Tsujita) and Shigeyuki (Ichirōta Miyagawa). Shigeyuki is a junior high school student who will soon be taking a high school entrance examination. Unlike the high school student brother, Shinichi, who lives up to Kōsuke’s expectations, Shigeyuki’s grades are consistently poor. The white-collar workaholic father finds a private tutor, Yoshimoto (Yusaku Matsuda), for Shigeyuki and imposes all responsibilities for his exam on the tutor. Even though Yoshimoto is a seventh year student of a third-rate university, Shigeyuki’s marks become better and better.

Cast

• Yusaku Matsuda as Katsu Yoshimoto
• Juzo Itami as Kōsuke Numata
• Saori Yuki as Chikako Numata
• Ichirōta Miyagawa as Shigeyuki Numata
• Junichi Tsujita as Shinichi Numata, the older brother
• Yoko Aki

Bibliography

• Gerow, Aaron (2008). "Playing with Postmodernism: Morita Yoshimitsu’s Family Game". In Phillips, Alastair; Stringer, Julian. Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts. Routledge. pp. 240–252. ISBN 978-0415328487. 
• McDonald, Keiko (1989). "Family, Education, and Postmodern Society: Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game". East-West Film Journal 4 (1): 53–67. 

External links

• Kazoku Gēmu at the Internet Movie Database