Review of Rental Family, directed by Hikari

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

Rental Family is actually a movie I wanted to see in theaters with my subscription, but I kept booking a seat and cancelling it last minute because I didn’t end up being in the mood at the time. And like many other things in my life, I procrastinated on watching it for almost a year. Turns out my sister’s Hulu account had it and I ended up pressing play out of curiosity.

Regardless, it came at an interesting time of my life—I was preparing to move to Seoul. That changed how I viewed the movie in some ways.

Let’s get into the review!

An American actor in Japan is hired to pretend to fit into people’s lives, even when he gets emotionally attached or disagrees with what’s going on.

Our main character in this movie is Phillip, an American living in Tokyo. Seven years prior to the events of the movie, he was in a popular Japanese toothpaste commercial, but he’s been chasing the high of that success and doing bit roles ever since.

He finds work with a company called Rental Family, which allows actors to play roles where they pretend to fit within families. His roles range from acting as a funeral attendant to acting as a long-lost family member. Phillip originally finds all of this ridiculous, but he needs the money and can be the standard white guy who shows up to things.

His next big role is within a Japanese wedding. Phillip finds himself unable to lie to the girl’s parents but goes through with the ceremony after talking to his coworker, Aiko. After the wedding he learns that his new fake wife is a lesbian hiding it from her family, and she wants to move to Canada with the girl. They’re both immensely grateful for his work and helping them with their situation.

His next role is acting as the father of a half Japanese girl named Mia. Her mother hires him thinking that if Mia thinks he’s her father, she would be able to get into an elite private school. However, the more time they spend together the more he grows emotionally attached to her. She originally resents Phillip because she thinks he abandoned her, but eventually she opens up.

He’s also playing the role of a journalist, hired by a renowned actor’s daughter. The actor, Kikuo, is elderly and has dementia, but Phillip’s presence makes him feel like he’s important again.

Mia’s mother warns Phillip about getting closer to her, and with Kikuo he gets the request to take him to Amakusa. Phillip becomes more disillusioned when he learns his coworker has been beaten by the wives of some of her clients. After a successful private school interview, Phillip tells Mia he is going back to the United States.

He then takes Kikuo to his childhood home, where he finds a time capsule and breaks down. However, after Kikuo collapses and Phillip takes him to the hospital, he’s arrested for kidnapping the elderly man. Mia also learns Phillip isn’t her father after he’s spotted in a television ad, but then forgives her mother.

Phillip’s coworker Aiko resigns after breaking the facade to a client. With another coworker, they go to Kikuo’s home in an attempt to break Phillip out of jail. With Shinji, the owner of Rental Family, they convince the daughter not to press charges. Phillip is freed and not long after Kikuo passes away.

Phillip then goes to see Mia, now attending the school, and introduces himself genuinely. They become friends, while Phillip and Aiko return to Rental Family with some major changes by the owner. The film ends with Phillip going to the same shrine he went to with Kikuo and smiling at his reflection.

Overall Thoughts

I think I came into this movie with little to no expectations and thought it was well done. While Philip has quite the unique story as someone working as an actor in Japan, playing the token white guy roles, there’s a distinct loneliness that comes with his role in life. There are some important broader themes about how we use people, specifically actors, to play roles in our lives.

That said, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It felt like a fairly simple movie overall but had some great cinematography and dialogue throughout. Aiko’s story is something I would have wanted to see more of in the end, but dragging out the run time would not have done well for this movie.

All of this is to say that if this movie interests you, go see it! Find a copy at your local library or rent it online. You may find this one worth a watch.

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