QUICK HIT: Rental Family [2025]

December 12, 2025

1–2 minutes

Hikari, Rental Family, Searchlight Pictures

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 110 minutes
Release Date: November 21st, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Director(s): Hikari
Writer(s): Hikari & Stephen Blahut

Sometimes the story we tell ourselves is the truth.

Hikari and Stephen Blahut’s script for Rental Family very smartly introduces the insane (to westerners) idea of a company renting out actors to fulfill a client’s culturally traditional social needs via victimless examples. A fake funeral to feel loved. A fake marriage to satisfy parental wishes while securing an escape. We become charmed by their wholesomeness right alongside the newly recruited Phillip (Brendan Fraser). The concept feels like a wonderful gift.

Then we see Shinji Tada’s (Takehiro Hira) other offerings—altruistic in theory yet morally questionable since the people getting helped don’t know it. Mom hiring an “estranged father” to secure a young girl’s (Shannon Mahina Gorman) private school enrollment, but telling her he’s real to lend the interview authenticity. A daughter hiring a “journalist” to prove her aging father’s (Akira Emoto) acting legacy remains relevant without considering what the ego boost might stir.

What was a cute premise about the act of helping curing the helper (Phillip is lonely in self-exile) suddenly reveals the pain of silent manipulations. Phillip teaches Shinji and Aiko (Mari Yamamoto) that help shouldn’t be conditional on who pays because empathy can only coexist with capitalism if you’re willing to put the job’s purpose above the job itself. Before lying to alleviate your own frustration with a loved one’s needs, try asking what it is they truly desire.