Rental Family (2025)
Director: HIKARI Run Time: 110 min. Rating: PG-13 Release Year: 2025
Starring: Akira Emoto, Brendan Fraser, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Takehiro Hira
Country: Japan, United States
Language: English, Japanese
About the film:
World Premiere, TIFF 2025. An American actor in Tokyo struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.
About the filmmaker:
Hikari is a Japanese filmmaker and former actress. Her feature film debut 37 Seconds (2019) premiered at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. She went on to direct three episodes of Beef (2023), starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. Her latest film, Rental Family (2025), is an international co-production between the United States and Japan, also co-writing the screenplay.
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