Director: Hikari
Writers: Hikari, Stephen Blahut
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto
Synopsis: An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. He rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the beauty of human connection.
Our excursions into Asia from an American point-of-view always play out the vast differences between the West and the Pacific Rim. It’s sometimes comical, such as human size and social norms that could be a little bit baffling to those who know nothing. Even for those who have lived in Asia for years, there are always those blind spots and things they discover. In Rental Family, director Hikari (37 Seconds) takes us through the sentiment business that is unique to Japan and foreign to others: the selling of sentimentalism through another figure who is not a member of your family.
Brendan Fraser stars as an American actor named Phillip who has been living in Tokyo for the last seven years doing all sorts of gigs from a toothpaste commercial to being a pirate in a TV movie, all speaking Japanese. It’s not the role or pay Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation would get, but Phillip gets by fine. Then, he gets an unusual offer which Phillip isn’t aware of, but is common in Japan. He’s at a funeral of someone he doesn’t know, but is there paid as an extra, even though it’s not a movie. Philip meets Shinji (Takehiro Hita), the man who hired Phillip and runs the rental family agency; there are people who hire actors as stand-ins to be a friend or a family member in various social events, such as that funeral, and the next gig for Phillip, a wedding.
It’s something Westerners can’t comprehend, but this is an actual thing. Japan has created a sub-industry in acting where someone is rented out to play a role in something and has been a thing for decades. Since the end of the COVID pandemic, however, business is booming as it helps people who are lonely and need to fill this void in whatever they need someone to do. Even in his time in Japan, Phillip learns this and shows that his cultural values still clash with Japanese culture, forcing him to adapt to this other side as a professional actor. Two key roles test him and how he goes along with this job, including playing the abandoned father of a young girl whose mother needs him to help get his daughter into a top school.
Overall, Phillip finds this unexpected joy in giving people some happiness in their life, even though he’s acting the part. The other job Phillip does is impersonating a journalist who interviews an aged actor (Akira Emoto) who hopes he’s not forgotten when he dies as his memory fades away. Phillip is not supposed to get too close to the clients, but it becomes very difficult when he’s intervening in their lives that is fraudulent, yet Phillip has to help. These perils are also seen on the side of Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), another rental family actor who plays the role of mistress of a married man and has to take a slap in the face – literally – as part of the job.
Rental Family is a comedy-drama that is surprisingly heartwarming as it is touching on the artificials that could cause more harm than good, which concerns Phillip in the beginning. But, this is something common in Japan, and Phillip, who is semi-proficient in speaking the language, just has to do something to plug the gap in people’s lives. They are there to sell emotions, mixing a client’s fantasy with their own reality for whatever reason. It is something that Hikari and her co-writer, Stephen Blahuther, bring to light in a neat way with the performances tender and charming and very easy to love.
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