The Family Game 1983

Mr. Numata, Jûzô Itami, is a salaryman whose presence in the family is felt more by its absence than by involvement, while his wife Chikako, Yuki Saori, remains at home emotionally drained from caring for their two teenage sons. Their elder son Shinichi, Jun’ichi Tsujita, excels at a top high school, making his father proud, while younger Shigeyuki, Ichirôta Miyakawa, struggles with poor grades and a growing fascination with roller coasters. Shigeyuki is also routinely bullied at school by a group led by his former best friend, adding pressure to an already tense home life. The Numata family lives in a small apartment within a newly built complex of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, a setting that mirrors the careful, sometimes claustrophobic control their lives are under.

To repair the chasm between performance and expectation, Mr. Numata hires a new tutor for Shigeyuki: Yoshimoto, a seventh-year student from a third-rate university, whose eccentric methods fill the role of a father that the elder Numata has vacated. Yūsaku Matsuda brings a striking, intimate approach to coaching, kissing Shigeyuki on the cheek and engaging in hushed, near-whisper conversations that blur lines between guidance and personal attention. He also uses firm discipline, including physical hits, to underscore his belief that Shigeyuki’s success hinges on unwavering, intimate intervention. Under Yoshimoto’s mentorship, Shigeyuki’s grades rise, and the once-struggling student eventually passes the entrance exam for the high school.

The moment of triumph at a family dinner brings its own tension. With all five central figures present, a celebratory meal devolves into a chaotic food fight as Yoshimoto unleashes a riotous display—spaghetti flying, wine sloshing across the table, and him striking at the Numatas—revealing the volatile undercurrents beneath a surface of achievement and obligation. This dinner scene underscores the complex, uneasy chemistry at the heart of a family trying to navigate ambition, affection, and control.