“The perfect feel-good movie of the year.” Get tickets now to see RENTAL FAMILY, only in theaters November 21st. #RentalFamily
To find your theater, visit: https://searchlightpictures.com/rental-family
Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/n0pqP6ClcE8?si=ITReh8dR31WR09eu
Set in modern-day Tokyo, RENTAL FAMILY follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who 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. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.
Searchlight Pictures presents RENTAL FAMILY, directed, co-written and produced by HIKARI (“Beef”, “Tokyo Vice”, 37 Seconds).
The film stars Academy Award® and Screen Actors Guild award winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale, The Mummy, Encino Man) with a supporting cast that includes Emmy® nominee Takehiro Hira (“Shogun”), Mari Yamamoto (“Pachinko,” “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”), newcomer Shannon Mahina Gorman and iconic actor Akira Emoto (Lovers Lost, Shin Godzilla, Dr. Akagi).
To find your theater, visit: https://searchlightpictures.com/rental-family
With a screenplay by HIKARI and Stephen Blahut (37 Seconds), the film is produced by Sight Unseen Pictures’ Eddie Vaisman (Wildlife, A Thousand and One, Bad Education) and Julia Lebedev (Dear White People, Bad Education), as well as Knockonwood’s Shin Yamaguchi (37 Seconds, Spirit World).
Jennifer Semler (A Real Pain, Theater Camp), Tomo Koizumi, Blahut, Leonid Lebedev (Bad Education), Fraser, and Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Love & Mercy) are executive producers.
Joining filmmaker HIKARI behind the camera are director of photography Takurô Ishizaka (Lear Rex, Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy), production designers Norihiro Isoda (The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) and Masako Takayama (“Tokyo Vice”), editors Alan Baumgarten (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Venom, American Hustle) and Thomas A. Kruger (“Shogun”, 37 Seconds), composers Jónsi and Alex Somers (Nickel Boys, Captain Fantastic), costume designer Meg Mochizuki (37 Seconds), makeup department head Hiromi Momose (Like Father, Like Son), and casting directors Kei Kawamura and Yumi Takada.
To find your theater, visit: https://searchlightpictures.com/rental-family
SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
Presents
In Association with TSG Entertainment
A SIGHT UNSEEN and DOMO ARIGATO Production
A Film by HIKARI
RENTAL FAMILY
Starring
BRENDAN FRASER as Phillip Vandarpleog
TAKEHIRO HIRA as Shinji Tada
MARI YAMAMOTO as Aiko Nakajima
AKIRA EMOTO as Kikuo Hasegawa
SHANNON MAHINA GORMAN as Mia Kawasaki
Directed by HIKARI
Written by HIKARI, Stephen Blahut
Produced by Eddie Vaisman, p.g.a., Julia Lebedev, p.g.a.,
HIKARI, p.g.a., Shin Yamaguchi, p.g.a.
Executive Producers Jennifer Semler, Tomo Koizumi, Stephen Blahut,
Leonid Lebedev, Brendan Fraser, Oren Moverman
Director of Photography Takuro Ishizaka
Production Designers Norihiro Isoda, Masako Takayama
Edited by Alan Baumgarten, ACE, Thomas A. Krueger
Music by Jónsi & Alex Somers
Costume Designer Meg Mochizuki
Casting by Kei Kawamura, CSA, Yumi Takada
Run Time: 103 minutes
Rating: PG-13
HIKARI – Director, Writer, Producer
Originally from Osaka, HIKARI is an award-winning writer, director, producer with professional background as a dancer, singer, painter, and photographer. Her debut feature 37 Seconds premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Panorama Audience Award, the CICAE Art Cinema Award, and earned nomination for Best First Feature. The film received accolades globally.
Her past television credits include the Emmy® winning series “Beef”, starring Oscar nominee Steven Yeun and comedian Ali Wong, as pilot director and “Tokyo Vice” starring Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, and executive produced by Michael Mann.
She has also written and directed multiple award winning short films such as Tsuyako, a post-war Japanese drama USC Thesis film that won over 50 awards including DGA
Student Award for the Best Female Director, live action/animated fantasy short film A Better Tomorrow, Can & Sulochan; a comedy about an Indian scientist living in Tokyo who falls in love with a vending machine; and a dance short film Where We Begin, which was nominated for the Best International Short Film at Tribecca Film Festival.
She’s currently developing several projects including an Untitled Female Samurai project, an original TV series with Annapurna based on her life as an exchange student living with a dysfunctional Mormon family in Utah, as well as an original adaptation of a beloved classic with Hyde Park Entertainment and Barbara Broccoli.
