"Family Game," Yoshimitsu Morita's 1983 black comedy about a sardonic, sadistic home tutor — played by Yusaku Matsuda — who ruthlessly exposes the dysfunctions of a "normal" middle-class family, made Morita, temporarily, the Takeshi Kitano of his era.
That is, a director with a fresh, innovative style and an irreverent attitude toward the shibboleths of both Japanese society and the Japanese film industry. A director, in other words, with the potential to shake things up locally, while building a major reputation internationally.
Instead, Morita became a mainstream chameleon, making sappy romcoms with fantasy touches ("Mirai no Omoide/Last Christmas,"), heavy-breathing soft porn posing as tragic drama ("Shitsurakuen") and turgid legal drama with reforming pretensions ("39 Keiho Daisanjukyujo"). In the process, he mostly abandoned his "Family Game" style and stance, whether from inclination or necessity — and his reputation abroad suffered accordingly.