‘New Family’ Featurette for ‘Rental Family’ Movie with Brendan Fraser
by Alex Billington
November 3, 2025
Source: YouTube
“Every character he meets will start adding a little bit more color into his life.” This looks so delightful. Searchlight Pictures has debuted a new promo featurette for the heartfelt film titled Rental Family, made by the filmmaker known as “Hikari” who also directed episodes of the series “Beef” & the film 37 Seconds. Rental Family already premiered at TIFF a few months ago and opens in theaters later in November this fall. Discover the joy of unexpected connections. A lonely American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese “rental family” company to play stand-in roles in other people’s lives. Along his journey, he finds surprising connections and unexpected joys within his built-in family. This stars Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, along with Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, & Akira Emoto. This fun promo focuses on explaining the story and the concept it explores – the idea that in Tokyo, Japan you can just rent a person for whatever – to be your friend, your boyfriend, your family member. I’m really looking forward to watching the film. I think this very wholesome, uplifting story is what we could use more of now.
Here’s the “Building a New Family” featurette for Hikari’s film Rental Family, on Searchlight’s YouTube:
You can rewatch the first official trailer for Hikari’s Rental Family movie right here for even more footage.
Set against modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Oscar winner Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find his 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 new clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that soon 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. Rental Family is directed by the Japanese filmmaker known as Hikari (aka Mitsuyo Miyazaki), director of the film 37 Seconds previously, plus episodes of the series “Beef” from A24. The screenplay is written by Stephen Blahut and Hikari. Produced by Julia Lebedev, Eddie Vaisman, Shin Yamaguchi, and Hikari. This is premiering at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival this fall. Searchlight will then debut Hikari’s Rental Family in select US theaters starting on November 21st, 2025 coming soon this fall. Who’s planning to watch this?
 |