[EitoRanger]

Rewatching the 2013 Drama Kazoku Game(Family Game) after a year and I have to say it is as brilliant as I remember. Both as a show and a social commentary.

Kazoku Game is adapted and updated from the novel of the same name. The Numata family hires private tutor Yoshimoto to tutor their youngest son, who is in the bottom 5% of his class and hasn't been going to school for weeks. To outside observers they are the perfect family, with a big house, hardworking father, beautiful and caring mother and honor student son. The only problem is the youngest, but that's wrong. The whole family is flawed. Which you find out more and more as the show progresses.

Now that I know the plot I can focus more on the Mise-en-scène and sound editing and how much can be said without a word. Like how the Numata house house has lots of expensive looking furniture but it's space out and has no personal belongings in the living room/kitchen area, like it is just a showroom. Hinting to the audience before showing it to them how much appearance matters to the family. The only exception are the awards that the oldest son Shinichi recieved in a sort of shrine the camera shows behind the parents in the awkwardly/creepy silent scene(no BGM) of them sitting in the living room with Yoshimoto waiting for him to say something for the family interview to start. The first sign that the Numata parents Shinichi's importance to them is like the house, just something to show off to others.

I could go on for a lot longer but I'll just end for now saying that if you ever want to try watching a Jdrama I'd recommend trying this. And that Yoshimoto can be really creepy and the mysteries around him just keep getting bigger.