Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Searchlight | Tagged: Hikari, Rental Family
Writer-director Hikari (Beef) spoke to us about her latest dramedy Rental Family, business premise, Brendan Fraser, co-stars, and more.
Published Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:18:03 -0600 by Tom Chang
|
Article Summary
Hikari discusses the true-life Japanese rental family service inspiring the film’s unique narrative.
Brendan Fraser stars as Phillip, an American entrenched in Japan, breaking the fish-out-of-water trope.
The film explores themes of belonging and found family through cross-cultural relationships and roles.
Collaboration with Stephen Blahut shaped authentic characters, with Fraser deeply preparing for his role.
▶” style=”border: 0px;” allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; fullscreen;” loading=”lazy” src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/KaRqx-6ybZc?feature=oembed” title=”Youtube Video”>
Hikari has become a masterful storyteller on screen, highlighting tensions and relationships since her theatrical directorial debut in 2019’s 37 Seconds. She would take her talents to the small screen with memorable runs on HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice and the Netflix series Beef. Her latest is Searchlight’s Rental Family, a deep dive into the lengths people will go through to fulfill any gaps in their lives by hiring actors into those roles to fulfill a fantasy whether its playing a father to a child trying to gain admittance in a prestigious school, playing the role of husband for an arranged marriage because her parents can’t accept her the way she is, and being a companion for someone in their final days. Hikari spoke to Bleeding Cool about the real-world inspiration for rental families in Japan, co-writing the screenplay with Stephen Blahut, why Brendan Fraser was perfect for the role of Phillip Vandarpleog, and the decision to feature him as a permanent resident, rather than the typical fish-out-of-water character, in the American living in Japan.
Brendan Fraser in RENTAL FAMILY. Photo by James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Rental Family Director Hikari on Storytelling Through a Japanese Service Industry, Brendan Fraser & More
What’s the inspiration behind Rental Family?
Mm, good call. Rental Family is [inspired by] around right before the pandemic. My writing partner was looking for a job for an American to do in Japan, randomly. There were several projects that popped up, jobs that popped out, one was Cuddling Service, Butler Cafe, Dress Up Like a Butler, serving tea to Japanese people, and then this service appeared. From there, we start digging in, and we find out about the rental family business. I’m Japanese, and I didn’t know anything about the Japanese rental family, so we started digging in, trying to figure out why this business exists, and then what kind of people use these services. That was the very beginning of it, and we learned so much from the interviewing, researching, and all that stuff.
What was it like developing the screenplay with Stephen?
It was great. It was easy because he came in, he’s been to Japan several times, and he had his own experience as a foreigner, right? Whereas I’m Japanese, but I left Japan a long time ago, and whenever I go back to Japan, I always feel foreign. Either I feel I’m not Japanese enough, but when I come to America, I feel I’m not American enough. We’re about why we feel that way, what kind of people we surround ourselves with, that kind of stuff. For me, it was very easy for us to collaborate, because I got to see both worlds, right? I got to see like Akira’s world, Japanese actors’ characters’ world, whereas Stephen was able to really develop Brendan’s side as well.
Misato Morita and Brendan Fraser in RENTAL FAMILY. Photo by James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
What made Brendan perfect to play Phillip?
Oh, Brendan is such a teddy bear [laughs]. As a person, he’s a kind soul who cares so much about art, craft, and people. That’s the quality I was looking for in Phillip; perhaps he also had it on already. Brendan is someone who’s worked for a long time, but he had to step away at one point to take care of his family. When he came back, he had a certain experience from that, right? Being away from it, as a person, along with his life experiences, resonated with me. It felt perfect, but this is after we talked, finding out what he did, and then we adjusted to the ideas and nuances in the script so that it feels more organic to Phillip and Brendan.
What’s the advantage of having someone like Brendan’s character already entrenched in Japan, having the story focus on him, not all in the typical fish-out-of-water scenarios we would usually see foreigners in Japan narrative-wise?
To portray Philip was important as somebody who is very respectful of the culture. That’s why we did it not in a year or two, but in seven years. Seven years is a long time, right? He could have lived in any other country, but he chose to be there. We later found out that he doesn’t have any other place to go, and it’s a very comfortable place. Then Brendan’s character really says a lot about many of the foreigners’ experiences in Japan, that some of them are very respectful. A lot of them get married to a Japanese woman or a Japanese man, and they end up living there because they feel comfortable. The way Brendan talked about his physics when he sat on the chair in the train, and he could squeeze himself in, right? That tells him he’s not like, “Hey, I’m sitting here.” That’s what a tourist would do, right? Then he’s doing this because he wants to belong, and that wanting to belong is also very important to our movie.
Brendan Fraser and Akira Emoto in RENTAL FAMILY. Photo by James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
What did Brendan do to immerse himself in Japan? Did he stay and learn the lay of the land?
Yeah, he took Japanese lessons for six months, three times a week, whenever he could. When he came to Japan, we made sure that he had a Japanese tutor, so that he could learn the language together. He also spent day and night walking around the countryside and saw what Japanese culture is like. When he’s walking around, he’d do things like squeeze into this subway alone.
Were there any other scenarios you were working on as far as stories for Philip to engage in that you and Steve were talking about, aside from what ended up being for Kikou, Mia, and arranged marriage in those various scenarios?
What we wanted to create with this kind of reality that [Phillip] never had in the way that Akira’s character Kikou’s becomes his father figure, right? He also becomes a husband, which is something he always wanted to be, but then he never had an opportunity, and then he becomes a father, perhaps something he probably thought about, but he never had an opportunity. For us, to put him in a place where he is living “the other life,” if that makes sense, and then what does that look like, right? Also, I want the audience to be in Phillip’s shoes and walk with him. When you’re in a funeral place and the guy pops up and he’s like, I’ll be like, “What the fuck?!” Right? Excuse my Japanese, and I want everybody to experience that.
Shannon Gorman and Brendan Fraser in RENTAL FAMILY. Photo by James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
How did the casting come and get the others involved, like Takehiro [Hira], Mari [Yamamoto], Shannon [Gorman], Akira, and Shino [Shinozaki], and why do they work so well in the film?
Brandon was the first one we got when we found him, and then we did audition for both in America and in Japan. Akira, a legendary actor in Japan, came to audition for us, and then it was chemistry and balance [between the actors], right? I liked Akira because he’s a legendary actor whom I always wanted to work with, and he’s incredible. I cannot wait to work with him again, and then also somebody like Mari, who’s still new to this industry. She has a big role in Monarch, which is an AppleTV series, and she’s incredible in it, but I wanted to see her because she’s so new. She’s still fresh to our eyes, and very strong too, as was her character, Aiko.
Tada, who always plays villains, apparently, he says, but he’s such a handsome and kind person that I feel like he’s like my brother to me. I wanted to have that quality in him [as Shinji], so that Philip can feel like his brother. So again, he is having all these relationships with everybody without knowing he’s forming a fake family on his own. They all eventually become his found family. That’s the whole premise of the movie, so I wanted to make sure that the balance worked out.
Cr: Searchlight Pictures
Rental Family is now in theaters.
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
AloJapan.com