Rental Family movie from the last year. What do you think about renting a family?
By Valentina
@valherma00 (1005)
Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
January 24, 2026 1:02pm CST
And yes, with lovely Brendan Fraser. Except from the Japanese actor next to Fraser and i knew him from the Japanese series Shogun, though i watched some Japanese movies in the past, I don't know any other Japanese actor so, yes, to be fair, I wanted to watch due to an interesting topic, renting family and Brandon Fraser, who i started to love since his The Mummy days.
Though the topic is interesting, movie itself doesn't offer that much. It's cute, family-oriented and fills you with emotions of finding yourself. It also shows nice scenery, Japan as a country itself, Brendan being higher than many Japanese while driving the subway, things like that. Yes, the guy is almost 1,90 meters tall, which i googled it.
The plot is about American actor, staying in Japan for 7 years and trying to revive his career. He started in a teeth commercial and ever since then, nothing. When he gets an acting gig to play a sad American (you read it correctly, just that) at customer's funeral and customer is alive, just acts he isn't, he is approached by the founder of agency who is involved in a business of renting family members and other things like, acting to be someone's girlfriend or mistress and getting slapped.
Fraser is reluctant at first but due to poor job offers, he gives this a shot. He first plays a journalist who is writing a story about a famous Japanese producer and listens to old man's stories. Then he acts or is rented to be a friend to someone but the toughest gig comes when he is rented to play a father to a girl that needs to enroll in a Japanese school and the school law is a single parent can't enroll the child so the mother needs a husband.
Brendan or Phillip, his real name, even declines a big job opportunity due to being emotionally connected to this little girl so, there is a lot of going on in this movie.
I don't trust in renting people but i've heard this is a good business in Japan.
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9 people like this
9 responses

@LadyDuck (491878)
• Italy
26 Jan
@valherma00 I imagine that in our Western Countries we prefer to go to a place where there are more people of our age, stay there, chat, have a drink together. You cannot "buy" emotions.
1 person likes this
@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
26 Jan
@LadyDuck i mean,i like the approach that you can vent to uknown people,almost like a therapy session,which is not cheap but this isn't cheap either.i've found a video of a japanese man who is rented to do nothing and gets 100 dollars per hour,plus his travelling expenses. I mean, he is living okay life at the expense of people's emotions. O,i agree;some things you can't buy.i can just wait for a bus and someone will talk to me or i will ask someone something.i'm not a super socialized person but i also like to talk and in some cultures it's a tradition

1 person likes this
@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
25 Jan
sorry, i forgot to put a trailer and i put it now. well, i've found this one video and it's not so bad. it's more strange when there are boyfriends or girlfriends to rent, when i searched and watched some of the youtube videos but, to us, western people, it is strange. people who do this are saying they are helping people to feel good cause more and more japanese people are feeling lonely. even in the movie, the ceo of the agency said they sell emotions, not people. but, i don't think i would have stomach for this.
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@Ineeddentures (15516)
•
24 Jan
A new concept for me to try and get my head around.
1 person likes this

@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
26 Jan
@Ineeddentures yes and you can just hold hands with her

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@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
25 Jan
in china and south korea, boyfriends and girlfriends are rented too but, it seems, or i've spotted, that only in japan you can rent the whole family. even conan o'brian showed us that 7 years ago. in the movie, they said, they don't sell people, they sell emotions.

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@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
25 Jan
Brandon is truly a gentleman; his voice is so comfortng. was it due to his hardships or he always has been like that but i love him. i've watched the movie on watchseries8 site and you have to turn on english english forced subtitles cause the regular ones don't translate a japanese language. I've found a video 7years ago and the guy said he is in this business for 9 years so, it's been there. This is the video. Actually, this ceo reminds me of the ceo in the movie; maybe he was an inspiration for a movie character, who knows. what saddens me a bit is that an older gentleman in the video is having a rented wife and daughter but won't call his own kids. I've also watched that you can rent boyfriends and girlfriends in south korea and china but only japan has the whole family included, it seems like that. Let's not forget Conan doing the same
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaXw2ztCqU
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@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
25 Jan
It goes from cringe and that people are feeling less lonely, according to japanese people. i found this video on youtube. There is even a video about japanese guy renting himself as doing nothing and he charges 100 dollars an hour plus his travelling expenses. i mean, what a life.
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@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
25 Jan
japan is a strange place. from making comics about everything but being shy in person or acting how they are shy then renting things and people, young men being hosts to rich women at night, all sort of things, that i've found on the youtube.
I liked this one video. there is also a sentence in the movie that they don't sell people, they sell emotions but hard to digest it.
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@AliCanary (3675)
•
25 Jan
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm planning to. The trailer looked good, and I like Brendan Fraser and Japanese things.
1 person likes this
@valherma00 (1005)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
26 Jan
I've watched it on watchseries8 site for free. i like things about japan too and fraser is a sweetheart. it's a feel good movie.
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