Were this odd, often charming comedy not the work of a Japanese-born director, one might worry that it was indulging in snooty Occidental ridicule.
The screenplay does invite western audiences to raise an eye at a peculiar phenomenon in Japanese culture. Brendan Fraser, almost as passive as he was in The Whale, plays Phillip Vanderploeg, a modestly talented American actor barely getting by in Tokyo. To this point he is best known for his turn in an embarrassing toothpaste commercial.
At a low moment Phillip is hired by a puzzling outfit named Rental Family. Based on real-life Japanese businesses, the company does what it advertises on the tin: actors are loaned out to pose as acquaintances or family members for those who feel a void in their lives.
After a few introductory gigs, our hero is nudged towards two long-term projects. The family of a retired actor (Mari Yamamoto), now passing into dementia, hire him to pose as a journalist researching a profile.
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More sensitive still, he finds himself impersonating the estranged father of Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman), a young mixed-race girl, as her mother seeks to enrol her at a prestigious school. Phillip is there to fake a degree of stability.
This is the sort of thing that generates aloof articles in British broadsheets about what’s wrong with Japanese society. But Hikari, hitherto most celebrated for directing the TV series Tokyo Vice and Beef, is not in the business of ridiculing anyone. Rental Family is a remarkably humane piece of work that finds justifications for every character’s oddest decision. Phillip is never cynical about the operation. The kid’s mother is making the best of a tricky hand.
The plot, as you may have already guessed, follows the loose shape of a familiar romantic-comedy arc – the one where the couple meet as one is posing as something they are not. Here it is a father-daughter bond. We know the two will get close. We know trauma will accompany revelations of the truth. We suspect later reconciliation.
It could be enormously clunky, but the quiet warmth of Fraser’s performance, the delicacy of Hikari’s direction and the ravishing location work just about distract from the teeth-smarting sentimentality. Soothing balm to kick off the cinematic year.
In cinemas from Friday, January 16th
