Mah-jongg is a tile-based game of skill and luck ... the enduring appeal of mah-jongg as a winning combination of two key things. “I love the sociable aspect of mah-jongg,” Kling says.

And the participants are not actors, but Long Islanders of all ages and backgrounds, finding their way to — or back to — one of the most iconic parlor games of the last century: mah-jongg.

Images of smoky late night mah-jongg dens packed with gamblers slamming down tiles with noisy abandon are best left to the movies. At the Matsumi-Gakuen free school in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture ...