In Rental Family, the new Tokyo-set drama starring Brendan Fraser, writer-director Hikari poses the question: “Can fantasies and fictions ever fill the gaps left in our lives by the people we miss; the things that we long for?” It’s a question the filmmaker – real name Mitsuyo Miyazaki – sets up and then resists answering in any declarative way. Instead, the film – about a washed-up American actor named Phillip who begins playing roles in the lives of strangers – treads around the topic with curiosity and empathy. Loneliness and loss, this drama seems to say, are a part of life, and sometimes we as a species go to unusual lengths in search of a balm for that pain. That’s not necessarily healthy. It’s not necessarily unhealthy either. It’s just something that we do. And it leads to phenomena like “rental families” – a concept that really does exist in Japan, in which actors perform the role of a loved one in exchange for a fee.
In today's spoiler conversation, Hikari – a former dancer and rap photographer, best known in film and TV for her work on the Netflix series Beef – joins Al to discuss what the growth of rental families in her home country of Japan says about where we’re at as a society. The filmmaker breaks down how she translated the universal loneliness epidemic that the rental family industry is testament to, into this beautifully understated tale.
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