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Searchlight Pictures just dropped the first trailer for Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser as a down‑on‑his‑luck American actor living in Tokyo who takes a bizarre gig playing “the token white guy” for a rental family agency.
Directed and co‑written by Hikari, alongside Stephen Blahut, the film riffs on real Japanese rental-family services where actors fill roles in strangers’ lives, and, as the trailer shows, pretending sometimes leads to real emotional breakthroughs.
Fraser plays an out-of-work American actor in Tokyo who gets hired to play fill-in roles for clients seeking fake familial connections. It’s bizarre, melancholic, and totally up his alley. We see his character reluctantly don costumes and forced smiles, only to discover that performing for strangers can open windows to genuine connection. As he bonds with clients, especially a young girl named Mia, the lines between pretense and purpose start to blur.
The trailer for Rental Family is also the payoff to one of the cleverest marketing campaigns in recent memory. Before a single frame of the film was revealed, audiences were already raising eyebrows at a series of posters advertising a mysterious “Rental Family Agency,” offering 24/7 consultations and “Happiness Tailored To You!” in cheery bilingual text.
The posters included no indication that it's a movie and had just Fraser dressed for fabricated family moments: weddings, movie nights, and even a sunny day on the golf course. It looked real, it felt surreal, and it turns out it was both.
More details on Rental Family
The synopsis for the film describes it as,
"Set against modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor who struggles to find 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 clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that 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."
Coming off his Oscar-winning performance in The Whale, Rental Family marks Fraser’s carefully chosen return to the screen after the SAG-AFTRA strike. Sources say he was picky with post-Oscar scripts, but this one hooked him.
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As for Hikari, the director is well known for her projects. After her breakout with 37 Seconds and a turn behind the camera on Netflix’s Beef, her return with Rental Family marks a film that leans into surreal loneliness with a soft touch. Co-writing and directing, this is her sophomore feature.
With a supporting cast that includes Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, and Japanese award‑winner Akira Emoto, the film is set to premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and opens theatrically on November 21, 2025.
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