52 Films by Women Vol 9. 47. Rental Family (Director: Hikari)
The subject has been
explored previously on screen in director Werner Herzog’s 2019 film, Family Romance, LLC, a blend of documentary and fiction, in
which the central role was played by a real-life professional substitute. Rental Family features Brendan Fraser (performing in a
mixture of English and Japanese) in the lead role as jobbing actor, Philip
Vanderploeg, who turns up at a funeral without a dead body as the obligatory
sad American. After grief is expressed, the stand-in corpse expresses his
thanks for the opportunity. Philip is an
actor who took a job in Japan seven years ago to appear in a toothpaste
commercial and never left. His agent Sonia (Helen Sadler), who we hear but do
not see, struggles to find him work, but Philip just about gets by. A meal at a
bar of beer and ramen provides an illustration of his comfort eating. Fraser is
an actor who made his name in comedies – George of the Jungle,
Encino Man – before starring as an unlikely action hero
in Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy franchise. In the early 2010’s, he stopped
being cast in leading roles and allowed the muscle he has built for his action
persona to turn to flab. Director Darren Aronofsky exploited the physical
change in Fraser in his 2022 film, The
Whale, enhancing it with make-up.
Fraser won a Best Actor Oscar as a result. Rental Family is his
first leading role since The
Whale and is the first test of
his continued appeal. Stars are usually cast in roles that showcase an aspect
of their screen persona. With Fraser, there is a question: what entertainment
value does he ‘guarantee’? The answer is the somewhat unfashionable qualities
of emotional honesty and intuitive empathy. He should be getting inspirational
teacher roles if only American states weren’t so keen on banning books from
their schools.
In an early scene,
we see Philip stare out of the window of his cramped apartment. He watches activity
in the apartments opposite. He’s like James Stewart’s L.B. Jefferies in the
Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Rear
Window, but wearing an
emotional rather than physical plaster cast. He pays a Japanese woman to spend
time with him – Hikari skirts the intimacy part – and when introduced to the
company of the title, wonders why Japanese people use substitutes instead of
therapy. ‘There is a stigma attached to mental health’, his employer, Shinji
Tada (Takehiro Hira) explains. Philip becomes the fourth member of the company.
His colleagues include Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), who gets a lot of ‘apology’ work,
the most profitable part of the business. This requires her to play the role of
a transgressive woman and apologise. The film has something to say about that.
Pictured: Aiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Philip (Brendan Fraser), two members of the titular 'Rental Family', a film set in Japan directed by Hikari and written by Hikari and Stephen Blahut. Photo: James Lisle. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
Philip’s first
starring gig requires him to get married using an assumed name. Understandably,
he freaks out. It is not mentioned explicitly, but we wonder about the
legality. It’s a real wedding with real people. Philip cannot be found. It
takes some time for Shinji to locate him, hiding in the bathroom. It is not a
spoiler to say he goes through with the wedding. However, there’s a heart warming
coda when Philip - in western clothes rather than a kimono - leaves the bridal
suite while the ecstatic bride cements her future happiness. It is the film’s
emotional highpoint.
The film then follows
Philip as he fulfils three concurrent assignments. First he helps a man to
exercise better self-care by learning to clean his room. Philip is the
substitute best friend. Second, hired by an anxious mother (Shino Shinozaki), he
presents himself as the father of a young girl, Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman) in
order to secure her a place in a prestigious private school which selects
students based on their background and sociability. Finally, he masquerades as a
journalist from the film magazine, Vivid Image, interviewing an elderly former
director, Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), having been hired by his daughter, Masami
(Sei Matobu). Philip’s purpose is to make the old man feel remembered, though
on no account must he mention ‘Ronin of Hiroshima’, a film title which to those
with knowledge of 20th Century Japanese history is of poor taste.
Philip inadvertently quotes a line of dialogue from the film; Kikuo explodes.
The film,
co-scripted by Hikari and Stephen Blahut, has been inaccurately described as a
comedy-drama. Hikari is far too respectful to those who need Rental Family’s
services to make fun of them. Nor does she milk Philip’s unease for laughs. He
receives some severe reprimands from his employer. Philip only agrees to work
for the company after Shinji mentions his toothpaste commercial – Hikari
presents it as a flashback. Like most actors, Philip is flattered that someone
is familiar with his work.
Pictured: Shinji (Takehiro Hira) and a perplexed-looking Philip (Brendan Fraser), in a scene from the film, 'Rental Family', written by Hikari and Stephen Blahut and directed by Hikari. Photo: James Lisle. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
He is to some extent
a blank. Philip has no family in Japan and no real friends. We learn about his
strained relationship with his father – ‘I didn’t come back [to the States] for
his funeral’, he explains. This provides him with the springboard for a change
of perspective. He wants his performances to be consequential, something that
acting in a commercial cannot give him. Early on, we see him dressed as a tree
sitting on a chair – rootless, as it were. This is a visual metaphor. He’s
immobile like a hospital patient, or indeed the aforementioned L.B. Jefferies.
The relationship
with Mia really tests Philip. Fraser has appeared in enough family-friendly
movies (including a remake of Journey
to the Centre of the Earth) to
demonstrate an engaging quality. Mia’s mother gives Philip a backpack to
present Mia as a gift. She throws it back at him. Where was he her whole
childhood? ‘Working,’ he explains. It’s true enough as far as Philip is
concerned. She respects him more when he joins in a school activity to build a
‘Shark-topus’ – a cross between a shark and an octopus – from recycled
materials. Mia invites a boy to her table to receive Philip’s help. Mia
presents the finished creature to him. It looks like a mobile that you would
hang above a baby’s cradle. She also gives him some of her drawings. However,
Philip disagrees with her mother’s approach to the school interview. He doesn’t
believe it is enough for Mia to passively submit to teaching – to trust that
the school knows best. He wants her to dream big. It’s hard to be a co-parent
if you are a paid stand-in. Philip’s opinions – his deviation from the norm – threaten
to derail his paid gig. Actors, as they say, are not supposed to talk back.
Philip’s
relationship with the film director Hasegawa tests him in a different way. He attempts
to engage the old man by complimenting him on his archive. Hasegawa immediately
asks him if he likes jazz; the old man enthuses in English about improvisation.
Philip is almost overwhelmed by him. Quoting the old man’s dialogue back at him,
Philip builds a friendship. But Hasegawa has early on-set dementia. He leaves a
restaurant without his shoes; Philip has to run out to fetch him. The old man
asks Philip to take him on a road trip to a place connected to ‘his life before
this life’. However, Philip knows that Hasegawa’s daughter will object.
If we learn one
thing from the film, it is that stand-ins cannot help being
engaged with the real people around them. They cannot suppress an opinion.
Philip does so partly because he comes from another culture. He builds an
intimacy with people that his life otherwise lacks.
The film is about
the thawing of emotion. Many of the company’s clients appreciate Philip’s
additionality. His counterpart is Aiko, who, while undertaking apology work, is
subject to abuse from client’s family members. Having been slapped in the face
by one woman – ‘that’s 20,000 extra,’ she tells the client – she finally breaks
character. If people (men) behave in a shabby way, there shouldn’t be a service
that makes it easier for them.
For his part,
Philip’s initiative imperils him. He then discovers that he has a ‘family’ who
are collectively prepared to reach out on his behalf. This finally catapults
the film into heartwarming territory. The name Hikari means light or
enlightenment. The director Mitsuyo Miyazaki adopted it in order to build a
positive persona – to offer hope to her audiences. You won’t laugh very much during
the film. However, you’ll enjoy the window onto Japanese life, the montages and
the music, including the use of David Byrne’s ‘Glass, Concrete and Stone’
during an ‘escape’ sequence.
Reviewed at Cineworld O2 (Screen 10), North Greenwich, London, Tuesday 20 January 2026, 15:10 screening
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