Rental Family
2025 · Movie · PG-13 · 110 min · ★ 7.8 · 76% critics
An American actor in Tokyo hits a rough patch until he joins a Japanese “rental family” agency, filling in stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in clients’ lives, the work starts to feel less like acting and more like real connection, raising uncomfortable questions along the way.
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Streaming on Hulu.
2 hours to watch.
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Details
- Years
- 2025
- Release date
- 2025-11-20
- Language
- English
- Rated
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 110 min
- Max quality
- UHD
- Critic score
- 76/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.8/10 (831 votes)
About
You’ll likely enjoy this warm, emotionally driven story if you like heartfelt connection and Japanese culture in a crowd-pleasing package; Not for you if you want a darker, more challenging take on the ethics of faking relationships like Peacock, or prefer bigger surprises like Begin Again.
Pros: heartfelt human connections; standout lead performance; warm, funny tone | Cons: heavy sentimentality; shallow ethical exploration; predictable story beats
Themes
- self-discovery
- tokyo, japan
- candid
- social isolation
- actor
- emotional healing
- inner conflict
- rental family
- bold
- hopeful
- human connection
- search for identity
- +7 more
Cast & crew
Brendan Fraser
as Phillip Vanderploeg
Takehiro Hira
as Shinji Tada
Mari Yamamoto
as Aiko Nakajima
Shannon Mahina Gorman
as Mia Kawasaki
Akira Emoto
as Kikuo Hasegawa
Paolo Andrea Di Pietro
as Handsome Actor
Shinji Ozeki
as Casting Director
- TK
Takao Kin
as Bartender
- RK
Risa Kameda
as Neighbor Girlfriend
- YS
Yuma Sonan
as Neighbor Boyfriend
Directed by Hikari