Searchlight Pictures is getting the jump in promoting an upcoming comedy drama movie that is sure to be popular during the holiday season this winter. Starring Brendan Fraser, Rental Family is sure to bring all the feels to the cineplex this Thanksgiving.
In the movie, Fraser plays a struggling actor looking for meaningful work in Japan and somehow stumbles on a very unusual gig – at least here in the U.S. The job? To play a stand-in role for strangers.
It’s a Real Thing
Although the premise of Rental Family seems far-fetched, it’s based on a very real practice in Japan. It is believed that the Japan Efficiency Corporation was the very first company to offer a rental family service.
Satsuki Oiwa founded the company in 1987 serving as a training service for corporate employees. However, in 1991, the company began hiring professional actors to portray friends or family for events like weddings or funerals. Sometimes the actors served as paid platonic friends.
In May of 1992, Oiwa told the L.A. Times, “Since the war, Japan has been so busy manufacturing products that we’ve forgotten about the human heart,” she said. “We have been good at ‘hard service,’ but we lack in ‘soft service,’–reaching others with a sympathetic heart.” By that time, Japan Efficiency was serving 21 clients and had 84 others on a waiting list. As for the actors, over 400 people had applied for the job as a professional stand-in.
In the late 1990’s, wedding guest rentals began being offered in South Korea. In 2007, a “Super-grandparents” business opened in France and in 2009, Scott Rosenbaum from the U.S. started his Rent-a-Friend business, which is still in operation giving opportunities for people to make a few platonic friends.
But Back to the Movie…
Rental Family is directed by HIKARI, known for the feature-film 37 Seconds and three episodes of the Netflix series, Beef. She co-wrote the screenplay too with Stephen Blahut. The film has been in development since 2019. This September, it will have its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and is scheduled to be released in the states on November 21, 2025. A Japanese poster for the movie uses the tagline, “Happiness Tailored to You”.
As for Fraser, Rental Family seems like a pretty sweet deal for him. After worldwide success in the late 1990’s with movies like George of the Jungle and The Mummy franchise, Fraser disappeared from view years later during a time of major depression. That is until he played the reclusive teacher in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, a role that won him an Oscar for Best Actor in 2023.
In Rental Family, Fraser’s character gets hired to play the role of young girl’s father. He gets so enmeshed in his clients’ lives, that his professional and personal lives begin to blur, but he finally finds the meaningful work he has been looking for. The movie also stars Japanese actors Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Akira Emoto and the up-and-coming child star, Shannon Gorman.
Main Image: Searchlight Pictures
Leave a comment