Rental Family

Phillip Vandarpleog Brendan Fraser has spent the past seven years living in Japan, scraping by with small parts in commercials and minor roles in films and shows. From his apartment window, he often watches the lives unfolding next door, a quiet sign of his loneliness that reverberates through his days. When his agent Sonia calls with a chance to play a role titled “Sad American,” Phillip is drawn into a world he never expected to inhabit. He heads to what appears to be a funeral, only to find the man in the coffin very much alive and the mourners paid actors. This jarring scene opens a doorway to a company called the Rental Family, run by Shinji Tada [Takehiro Hira], a pragmatic organizer who believes people buy emotions as a service.

At the Rental Family office, Phillip meets Shinji Tada [Takehiro Hira] and is introduced to Aiko Nakajima [Mari Yamamoto] and Kota Nakano. Shinji explains the concept: a service that fills gaps in other people’s lives to sell genuine-feeling moments, and Phillip is asked to fill a coveted “token white guy” role. He is initially skeptical, but a reminder of his own past ad campaigns—the smile that once brought happiness to strangers—softens his resolve. Phillip’s hesitation gives way to a sense of usefulness, and he agrees to take on the assignment, drawn by the idea that his presence could spark real emotion in others.

The first job pushes Phillip into uncharted terrain. He poses as a fiancé for a woman named Yoshie, and on the wedding day, Aiko is distressed to discover Phillip has vanished. He reemerges in the bathroom, wrestling with cold feet, and Aiko urges him to proceed for Yoshie’s sake. Yoshie’s real motive, she reveals, is to create a front for her family so she can move to Canada with her actual wife, Jun. Phillip witnesses how the performance becomes a lifeline for someone else, and though he leaves under a cloud of doubt, he also senses something meaningful in the act.

Phillip’s next assignment casts him as the long-lost father to Mia Kawasaki [Shannon Mahina Gorman], a mixed-race girl whose single mother Hitomi [Shino Shinozaki] wants her to have a chance at a prestigious school. When Phillip meets Mia as “Kevin,” she is initially wary and lashes out, accusing him of abandoning her. He makes a promise to never leave, a pledge he hopes to keep even as the role becomes more complicated than any script could require.

As Phillip navigates these roles, he also steps into other gigs that test the boundaries of the agency’s mission. He ends up acting in a scene where he interviews a former actor, Kikuo Hasegawa [Akira Emoto], a man under close watch by his daughter Masami. Through these encounters, Phillip begins to question the ethics of selling emotion and wonders if the Rental Family is doing more harm than good. In parallel, Aiko [Mari Yamamoto] takes a separate job pretending to be a mistress, a role that exposes her to abuse and leaves visible bruises—a stark reminder of how fragile the people behind these performances can be.

Phillip grows closer to Mia as they spend more time together—at a parents’ day at her school, for instance, when Mia asks him to stand in as the father for another student who misses his own. The bond deepens as they bond over shared moments, including a Monster Cat Festival where they get their faces painted and exchange numbers to stay in touch when Phillip is away. Sonia calls with news of a new acting opportunity in a detective series that would take him to South Korea, but Phillip declines, choosing Mia’s companionship over career prospects for the moment.

As Hitomi learns that her daughter has been talking to Phillip, she cautions him that Mia will be disappointed when he must leave. During Mia’s school interview for admission, the administrators are moved by Phillip’s genuine dedication to Mia’s growth. Hitomi eventually asks Phillip to tell Mia that he must return to the United States indefinitely, leaving them both heartbroken but understanding. In a surprising turn, Phillip has a change of heart about Kikuo Hasegawa [Akira Emoto] and helps whisk him away for a night, hoping to travel to his old home where photos of Masami lie buried. Kikuo weeps for the time he never spent with her, and Phillip promises to look after his friend. When Shinji learns of Phillip’s plan, he explodes in anger, calling him a hypocrite for stealing away a key asset. Phillip defends his actions, insisting that the agency’s work is built on hollowed-out lives, not real connection.

The consequences come quickly. Phillip is arrested and faces possible deportation unless he can prove his innocence within 48 hours. Aiko and Kota go undercover as lawyers to help Kikuo persuade Masami to drop charges, revealing the agency’s darker side to Phillip’s world. Back home, Mia learns that Phillip has been a true friend, and Hitomi accepts that he was not her father but a man who cared deeply for her daughter. She even crackers a confession about their true situation, admitting the lie to Mia and then forgiving her mother as they move forward.

Phillip is released, but the personal cost lingers: Kikuo dies in his sleep, and Phillip attends a funeral that feels both like the performance he once knew and a real moment of grief. Mia begins at her new school, and Phillip gains permission from Hitomi to remain in Mia’s life for now, revealing his real name and his profession as an actor. Though Mia initially grapples with the truth, she eventually forgives him, and their fragile friendship endures.

In the aftermath, the Rental Family agency continues to operate, with Shinji announcing that they have retired the “apology services” that once allowed for exploitation and abuse. The human cost lingers, though, as Aiko confronts the power dynamics at play and speaks out about the pain she has endured. After a long day of work, Phillip finds a quiet moment at a shrine, where a breeze shifts the blinds and he sees his own reflection in a mirror, a small but telling reminder of the person he has become through this strange, emotionally charged life.

Last Updated: December 10, 2025 at 12:33