The Family Game

This article is about the Japanese film. For the American game show, see The Family Game (game show). For other uses, see Family game (disambiguation).
The Family Game
Film poster
Directed byYoshimitsu Morita
Written byYohei Honma (novel)
Yoshinori Kobayashi
Yoshimitsu Morita
Produced byYutaka Okada
Shirō Sasaki
StarringYūsaku Matsuda
Juzo Itami
Saori Yuki
CinematographyYonezo Maeda
Edited byAkimasa Kawashima
Production
companies
Distributed byCircle Films
Release date
  • 4 June 1983 (1983-06-04)
Running time
107 minutes
LanguageJapanese

The Family Game (家族ゲーム, Kazoku Gēmu) is a 1983 Japanese comedy and family drama film directed by Yoshimitsu Morita. It follows the story of a nuclear family of four whose father hires a tutor for the younger son, a distracted and low-ranking middle school student who will soon be taking his high school entrance exam. The idiosyncratic tutor soon becomes a father figure for the boy, as the father is distant and unfeeling, and through his interactions with the family shake ups the emotional shallowness and artificiality that ties them together. The "game" of the title refers to family interactions based on the roles that each member is expected to play and not on genuine emotional ties. It was the first major film by the director and is an example of postmodern cinema.[1] The film contains elements of black humor and social satire.

The Family Game is considered one of the best Japanese films by film critics. Kinema Junpo, the premiere film magazine of Japan, ranked it as the 10th best Japanese film of all time (in 2009), the best Japanese film of the 1980s (in 2018), and the best Japanese film of the year (in 1983).[2][3][4] The film was also selected as the best Japanese film of 1983 by the BFI.[1] The movie missed the Japan Academy Prize for the Best Picture (losing out to Palme d'Or Winner The Ballad of Narayama).

  1. ^ a b "The best Japanese films – one per year". BFI. May 14, 2020. Archived from the original on March 18, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  2. ^ "「オールタイム・ベスト 映画遺産200」全ランキング公開". Archived from the original on December 15, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  3. ^ "キネマ旬報が選ぶ1980年代日本映画ベストテン、第1位は「家族ゲーム」" [Kinema Junpo's 1980s Japan Best Ten Movies, No. 1 is "Family Game"]. Natalie (in Japanese). 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on September 12, 2024. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
  4. ^ Richie, Donald (2005). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (Revised ed.). Kodansha International. pp. 231–232. ISBN 4-7700-2995-0.