The Family Game (Kazoku gêmu) (1983)

Co-produced by the Art Theatre of Japan, The Family Game explores the coming-of-age (so to speak) of a traditional Japanese family. Ichirota Miyagawa is the youngest member of a clan that dwells in a house so small you virtually have to go outside to change your mind. Miyagawa gets his first taste of the world outside his own four walls when he is tutored by instructor Yusaku Matsuda. Though Matsuda's technique is somewhat blunt (he's not averse to knocking his pupil around to get his attention), the tutor encourages Miyagawa to stand on his own two feet and break away from the family unit. Matsuda practices what he preaches at the climax by lashing out at the family's cloistered provincialism. The Family Game is based on a novel by Yohei Honma. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi