A moving tale about compassion and unexpected bonds arrives on streaming when Searchlight Pictures’ Rental Family premieres on Hulu via Disney+ on 18 March.
Taking place in contemporary Tokyo, the film follows a struggling American performer portrayed by Brendan Fraser. Once a rising talent, he now drifts through life feeling disconnected in a culture that isn’t quite his own. Everything shifts when he answers an unusual casting opportunity and joins a business that provides “rental relatives” to people seeking companionship.
Through this job, he is asked to portray different family roles for clients — sometimes as a son, a husband, or a supportive figure in moments when real loved ones are absent. What begins as acting gradually becomes something deeper. As the lines between staged interactions and genuine emotions start to fade, he finds himself increasingly invested in the lives of those he is meant only to temporarily comfort.
Directed, written and produced by Hikari (film director), Rental Family quickly became a festival favorite after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film continued to earn audience awards at several international events, including the Chicago International Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Middleburg Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, and Heartland International Film Festival. Critics have celebrated the film for its emotional depth and balance of warmth and humor, with strong approval scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
The cast also includes Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, rising talent Shannon Mahina Gorman — whose performance earned a nomination from the Critics Choice Association — and veteran Japanese actor Akira Emoto.
At its core, Rental Family is about rediscovering meaning in unexpected places. The story centers on an American actor in Tokyo who accepts work at a unique agency that hires individuals to fill temporary family roles. As he becomes immersed in the emotional lives of his clients, the experience challenges his sense of identity and forces him to confront the ethics of pretending to be someone else’s loved one.
Through these encounters, he begins to rebuild his sense of purpose — learning that even brief connections can carry profound emotional truth.