The Family Game

Infobox Film
name = The Family Game


caption = Film poster
imdb_rating =
director = Yoshimitsu Morita
producer = Yutaka Okada Shirō Sasaki
writer = Yohei Honma (novel) Yoshinori Kobayashi Yoshimitsu Morita
starring = Yusaku Matsuda Juzo Itami Saori Yuki
music =
cinematography = Yonezo Maeda
editing = Akimasa Kawashima
distributor = Circle Films
released = June 4, 1983
runtime = 107 min.
language = Japanese
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0087545

nihongo|"The Family Game"|家族ゲーム|Kazoku Geemu is a Japanese movie that was directed by Yoshimitsu Morita in 1983. The movie portrays the changing dynamics of Japanese family life around the time. 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, Ichirōta Miyagawa was awarded Newcomer of the Year.

Plot summary

"The Family Game" presents an exaggerated look of the family structure in 1980s Japan, through the Numata family. The Numata family consists of the father, Kōsuke (Juzo Itami); mother, Chikako (Saori Yuki); and two sons, Shinichi (Jyunichi Tujita) 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. So the typical 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. This movie explores not only dysfunctional families and competitive educational problems, but other issues prevailing in Japan in the 1980s.

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

External links

*imdb title|id=0087545|title=Kazoku Gēmu