The Family Game

Introduction from producer Kazuko Misawa on Dec. 2

Ticket holders for the 6:30pm screening of The Family Game are invited to a reception immediately following the screening at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery.

Things begin to unravel when the parents in what seems like an ordinary lower-middle-class family in Japan decide to hire a tutor to improve their middle schooler’s failing grades. The enigmatic tutor, played by the irresistible Yūsaku Matsuda (a massive star in his time gone too soon), is like a cannon let loose, ping-ponging between the family members and twisting facades of convention into the realm of the absurd. Visually inventive, bitingly sharp, audacious, and full of wit, the film immediately launched Morita into the upper echelons of contemporary Japanese cinema. Winner of seven Japanese Academy Awards that year (including Best Director and Best Actor), this production of the critically acclaimed Art Theatre Guild became an instant classic, bursting with an energy that still sends out ripples today. This 1984 New Directors/New Films selection finally returns to New York in a new 4K remastered version.