The Family Game (2013)

Kazushige Numata (Itsuji Itao) and his wife Kayoko (Honami Suzuki) have two sons. The first son Shinichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) studies well, but the second son Shigeyuki (Seishuu Uragami) does not. Kazushige and Kayoko are worried about Shigeyuki, who might even fail to enter high school. Making things worse, Shigeyuki stays at home and doesn't go to school.

Kazushige and his wife Kayoko finds an Advertisement for a private tutor on the internet. They contact and then meet Yoshimoto (Sho Sakurai), who is the private tutor. During their meeting, both parties lays out one condition to work with each other. The father stipulates that Shigeyuki must go back to school within a week or Yoshimoto will be fired. Meanwhile, Yoshimoto stipulates that the parents must not interfere with his work. Yoshimoto's extraordinary teaching methods then influences not only Shigeyuki, but also his entire family.

• Sho Sakurai as Yoshimoto Koya / Tago Yuudai
• Ryunosuke Kamiki as Numata Shinichi
• Honami Suzuki as Numata Kayoko
• Seishuu Uragami as Numata Shigeyuki
• Itsuji Itao as Numata Kazushige
• Shiori Kutsuna as Asami Maika / Tachibana Maki

In the table below, the blue number represent the lowest ratings and the red number represent the highest ratings.

The drama receives praise from critics. Philip Brasor from Japan Times compared the drama from the film adaptation. He said that "It exaggerates the elements that made the movie (The Family Game 2013) shocking. The characters aren’t just deluded, they’re twisted." Brasor praised Sakurai Sho character than Yūsaku Matsuda in which he said that "Matsuda’s tutor was an antisocial loser with a streak of cruelty. Sakurai’s is a full-blown sociopath. Matsuda struck Shigeyuki just to get a rise out of him. Sakurai not only strikes Shigeyuki (Seishuu Uragami), he practically destroys the Numata home on a weekly basis, cackling all the while like the Wicked Witch of the West. Matsuda’s power over the Numata household came from the force of his personality. Sakurai’s power is of the purely calculating kind, as is the writing in general....Like Matsuda’s tutor, Sakurai’s uses gamesmanship instead of pedagogy to get results, but his methodology is more sadistic."[4]

Sakurai Sho's acting worked out very well in which made the fans found it to be "Too disturbing to watch". It's dubbed to be the "2013's Biggest Drama Surprise" by critics and gave Sakurai Sho a number of awards.[5]