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With a release date set for September 12th, this Morita Yoshimitsu film will have an R1 release from Geneon (who mostly deal with anime, but I think own a chunk of the ATG rights in the US.) This will be one of a handful of ATG films available with english subs (officially, that is), and only the third or fourth Morita (caught me off guard, actually).

This film swept the Kinema Jumpo awards (best Film, best Director, plus a few more) when it was released, which by and large is a worthwhile indicator of quality. Links: Amazon.com, yesasia.com, dvdasian.com. I'm definitely looking forward to checking this out (I think I have a DVDr dub of the VHS, but I never got around to watching it). I'm sure there are some people familiar with this here.

How refreshing to know that this satire will have a R1 DVD release.

I recall watching The Family Game during an undergraduate Japanese Society Through Cinema course. Though the print was shoddy and stained with seemingly transparent subtitles, I enjoyed Morita's lampoon of a modernized Japan whose technological and societal changes have wrought more distraction and bustle than anything else.

Most memorable for me are the film's closing dinner scene --a fitting metaphor for the collapsible foundation upon which the family's modern folkways and roles teeter-- and the constant family "chats" in the automobile. How simultaneously funny and sad it is that something as intimate as a familial talk is experienced only within the close confines of steel and upholstery.

A fine satire for Itami fans and those unsettled by the major icons of any post-modern society.