KAZOKU GAME (The Family Game) (2013)
Country: Japan
Episodes 10
Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Life, Drama
Rating: 10/10

“Kazoku Game” is a 2013 Japanese adaption of a 1983 drama by the same name.

How would you react as a parent, if you hire a home tutor for your child that he’ s not a typical tutor, but instead a nosy person that sneaks on everyone’s life and makes a mess out of it?
If you’ re a normal parent, you’d probably fire this guy and throw him out of your house.
But, is this family the typical wealthy and lovable family that everyone sees, or is it a family of many secrets?
And who exactly this mysterious tutor with the “problematic” attitude might be? Is he someone who they can trust?
Is there anyone you can really trust in this series?

Casting:
Sakurai Sho as Tago Yuudai / Yoshimoto Kouya (home tutor)
Kamiki Ryunosuke as Numata Shinichi (eldest son)
Uragami Seishu as Numata Shigeyuki (youngest son)
Itao Itsuji as Numata Kazushige (father)
Suzuki Honami as Numata Kayoko (mother)
Kutsuna Shioli as Asami Maika (A mysterious woman)

-Spoilers ahead-

Numata family, is what you can call a “normal” family, consisted of two parents and two sons, at middle and high school.
The younger son, Shigeyuki, has dropped school, so the parents hire Yoshimoto Kouya to home tutor him and they give him a week’s deadline to make the kid return to school.

The two parents have no idea that the reason their kid left school is that he’ s being bullied, but they only care about sending him back. What it really matters to them, is for both their kids to be perfect at school and not cause any trouble. Status is the most important for them and they prefer to be seen like a normal family, than actually being one.

As for the eldest son, Shinichi, his parents only care about him being the best student and a role model for his brother, so they put a lot of pressure on him. He has a girlfriend, only because that seems good for his image. He’s slowly becoming a completely selfish and heartless person that doesn’t care about anyone or their feelings. He would never save a person that being bullied, even if it was his brother.

The two parents, have clearly forgotten why they even got married. There is no love or affection between them anymore. The Father is the one that works and the mother does the housekeeping, as this is the proper thing to do for their image.

Despite his methods being crazy, Yoshimoto starts to be very lovable by most of the family members and they start to trust him a lot. Shinichi, has a different opinion though. He searches through Yoshimoto’ s past and finds a lot evidence that he’s not the person that he claims to be and as a teacher, he was involved in a school murder of one of his students . He also meets a mysterious woman that helps him a lot by giving him evidence, claiming that Yoshimoto was the one that destroyed her family. It’s difficult for Shinichi to uncover Yoshimoto though, as he has proof that he’s not the perfect son who everyone thinks and he blackmailing him with photos that prove his bad habit of shoplifting.

Yoshimoto was really harsh. At some points, his actions are even hurtful. He closely watched the family’s every move, so he could easily manipulate their lives. As the plot goes, Yoshimoto always brings them to a point that they expose their bad behavior to each other, but every time the rest of the family act like they don’t care or that it never happened. Instead of helping themselves, they only fell deeper and deeper into their misery. Even when Yoshimoto’ s true identity and history got finally exposed, they easily accepted him back and continued their “normal” life.

The point is, that this family had to get complete destroyed, so the four of them could finally understand the meaning of their lives. Yoshimoto used them and manipulated them at a point that they did hit rock bottom.

Because of him, the father cheated, the mother lost millions of money gambling, the eldest son was about to go crazy and he dropped school. The father lost his job trying to embezzle the money that his wife lost, they had to sell their house and they end up broke apart. BUT, also because of him the youngest son stood on his feet, started to be active at school, doing his homework, he ended up having many friends and when he finally had the chance to be the bully, he proved himself he’ s way better person that he thought. Shigeyuki is the only hope in this broken family and despite his unusual methods, Yoshimoto really helped him.

We finally learn that Yoshimoto’s not the bad guy. He just feels responsible cause he couldn’t save Shouta, his student who was bullied by a teacher. The bully teacher started blackmailing Yoshimoto too, so Shouta ended up killing the teacher and commiting suicide. The mysterious girl was this kid’s best friend and as she deeply respected Yoshimoto, she desided to help him and play a role in his plan to resque the Numata family. As for the Numata family’s bad actions, was it really his fault? All he did was expose their true selves.

With his unusual ways, he helped them understand what family is all about. His actions was what finally triggered them and awekened them to have hope and start again. They ended up living in a very smaller house, both parents had to start working, but the importand thing this time was the fact that they became a true family.

If that eccentric tutor Yoshimoto hadn’ t helped, all of them, but especially the two sons, would follow a very different and darker path. Shinichi could be an empty hearted monster that didn’t care about anything and had no purpose in life (as Yoshimoto’s past colleague who bullied Shouta) and Shigeyuki would’ t be alive (like Shouta, his past student).

-End of spoilers-

“Kazoku Game” is so captivating that makes you lose your mind. I couldn’ t stop watching episode after episode and I what I loved the most was how unpredictable the plot was. You learn to trust no one. Not only the 5 protagonist, but also the people that appeared to be their friends or care about any of them, was revealed to be a pawn at Yoshimoto’ s (Kazoku) game.
It’ s a really educational drama. As the episodes go, the plot gets deeper and deeper. It mainly focuses on bullying, but you will learn to understand what is meaningful and importand and what really matters in this life.

The cast is exceptional. All the actors give excelent performances, but what outshines them all, is Sakurai Sho’s acting.

Also, the soundtrack is memorable, but I would like to give extra credit at the ending song, called “Endless Game” by ARASHI, a Japanese boy band consisting of five (extremely talended) members and Sakurai Sho is one of them.

All these facts makes this drama so iconic and a must watch! The only thing that I have to complain, is why I hadn’t watch this series for so many years.

Thank you for reading this,

Utaku