Rental Family (2025)

The beauty and the pain of white lies.

Somehow does not hit the mark by not diving deep enough into the connections between the characters and separate stories. It’s for sure a light feel good slice of life comedy, but it’s so light there is little to actually feed the soul and make you reflect on different themes presented. It gave me less of a “found family” and more of a “found acquaintances”.

It started great. The way the drama sets the stage and the characters grabbed my attention right away. Since I did not read the synopsis I had no idea what the plot was about, so the funeral scene introducing the Rental Family business surprised me in a positive way - setting the tone for the movie perfectly.

I was ready for some questionable situations that even if at times feel a bit “wrong”, still give the positive and heartwarming message. A nice contrast between what is right and wrong, what feels right and wrong, and what brings the best or the least harmful consequences. I really liked the idea of a more realistic slice of life, where you can still sense how restricted the characters are by the society and its standards, and how they just try to navigate through it causing the least harm. But the movie never fully delivered.

Too many stories, too many characters and too many relationships, not enough screen time. Whenever it’s about Phillip’s changing priorities, becoming part of the team, Shinji Tada’s past story (that seems to be so complex it could be a movie itself, instead of getting 2-3 random scenes here and there), Aiko Nakajima’s dedication to the job and her struggle with setting boundaries, or any of the customer’s tales - nothing made me feel satisfied by the end.

I wish this was a short series - one or two episodes per customer. Give me some time to get attached, to care, to reflect on their individual struggles and what made them use the service in the first place. As a movie, a lot of progress and development was simply fast forwarded.

That said, I did enjoy the overall vibe of the film. It was less moving and more fun. The comedy was probably my favorite aspect - at times dry, but fitting the tone. While the performances were strong, since the story felt less deep, I was not exactly touched by any of the actor's portrayals of the characters. I expected to cry at least a few times, but at the end my eyes were perfectly dry.

Overall, fun, but less than what I expected. Somehow I am not quite satisfied with the second half, especially with how well the whole scenario was set up.

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Everybody needs somebody

I just watched this at the movie theatre and it left quite the impression on me.

My critisism
The story telling in itself was very westernized, if you watched a lot of Japanese movies you will know. It's mostly in the little details or how things are resolved in the end. Japanese movies of this kind tend to leave more open endings and room for interpretation. I won't say more since it would be a spoiler.
Despite all the characters -apart from Brendan Fraser's- being Japanese, their actions did not seem very Japanese a lot of the time (especially in regards to skinship) and it felt simply strange how good their English was, even if they are in a big city like Tokyo. For example Brendan's character made the effort to speak Japanese really well (and great respect to the actor himself for doing that!), but then suddenly people switch back to perfect English, as if there is no need for him to even learn the language. Maybe it was done on purpose, but still it makes the characters less genuine to me, unless you gave them a backstory with a good reason for their perfect English.

What I enjoyed
The heartfelt interactions between Brendan's character and his clients and his reactions after he realized he can do something for them and they also help him in a way. The moments with the little girl Mia and the old actor Kikuo Hasegawa really made me feel for them.
The movie itself pays respect to a lot of aspects of Japanese culture and Shinto belief, but I'd still see it as an outside perspective. We take a glimpse at Japan through the eyes of a foreigner, who has lived there for quite some time, but is still trying to figure out a lot of things.
And can I say I just love Brendan Fraser as an actor?! You can see he put a lot of effort into portraying this character and trying to help viewers understand the motives behind people using these services.

In the end to me the message was:
Everybody needs somebody who's on their side.
I believe everywhere in the world people are in need of companionship, it just seems only in the Japanese culture this longing is being expressed in the unusual way of renting a person. But just because it is a service that comes with a financial transaction, does it mean it's not real?

Overall a quiet, sometimes funny, and very touching story about people and loneliness.

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