If you’re looking for a safe movie for tonight, you can’t go wrong with Rental Family, a dramedy starring Brendan Fraser with a distinctly Japanese twist. We will be following Phillip Vanderploeg, an American actor living in Japan. Down on his luck, Phillip accepts a gig that requires him to play a “sad American,” not knowing it will change his life forever. You see, there’s a company that enables you to hire people who then play whatever social role you desire. If you want someone to berate or praise you, they’re available for hire. If you need a friend, you can simply rent them and so on and so on, sniff, sniff. What follows is a classic story of love and friendship, found and lost. And it’s set in the bustling city of Tokyo. A metropolis where loneliness and alienation are enhanced by a specific set of Japanese social and cultural norms.
I know it’s going to sound a bit strange, but I like these kinds of movies. This specific subgenre uses comedy to defuse and explore difficult subjects. They also tether them to an average person navigating familiar and recurring themes. We can see that these are the two main subplots, both of which revolve around difficult but quite common themes. One is a kid growing up without one parent, while the other is about an elderly man coming to terms with his mortality and life. Take notice how, on paper, both of them sound quite exploitative and emotionally milking. However, once you see and feel them in a movie, they’re absolutely not that. I also want you to pay attention to one common thread tying them together in a weird way. And that’s agency, your ability to get shit done, to speak plainly.
The reason I said it’s going to sound a bit strange that I like these kinds of movies is that they never go all the way in their examination. They never become fully subversive, revealing the underlying concepts from which the perceived problems emerged. You might argue that you cannot do this type of dissection in a movie, and the whole premise is wrong. And not just the whole premise, but the question itself is wrong. And I would somewhat agree with you. However, if we used the “why question path” when presented with an event, we could come to a much more poignant conclusion. For example, the little girl’s mother hires Phillip to play her dad, but because the prestigious school she wants her to attend requires both parents.
We can break down this event into four distinct concepts. The first one is the school with its rather bizarre and stringent rules that you kind of see the logic of. The second one is the mother who decides to abide by those rules and just hire a guy to play her husband and Mia’s father. This seemingly subversive act maintains her autonomy and freedom. It’s not like she’s going to find a random guy, sacrifice herself, and marry him just so her kid would get into this fucking school. However, despite doing all of this “for Mia”, her mother doesn’t take into account her feelings and well-being with such a strange act. The third concept is the decision Phillip has to make to either refuse or accept the job. He’s presented here as someone who fully understands the moral and other consequences of such an act.
Finally, we have Mia, the little girl, who has absolutely no agency or say in this whole thing. All four of these concepts hint that there’s something horribly wrong with our society and way of life. And yet, they’re not directly accusing anyone or anything of such a state. You’re left to draw your own conclusions, if you wish to do so. This is why movies like Rental Family intrigue me so much. Actually, it’s not the movie itself that intrigues me; it’s the reaction of the general public. And I have no idea what it’s like. Sure, you can read reviews and opinions, but I’m more interested in the opinion of an average person. Did they take the movie at face value? Were they more embroiled in their own looming old age and eventual death with the old man’s story? Or were they thinking about their youth?
Perhaps the whole renting people in Japan is the biggest takeaway for them here. How did the movie impact them right after viewing? Here I am talking about impact and takeaways, thinking they’re going to be leaning to the rational/revolutionary side when it’s just as likely they would be reactionary. Hell, a man can dream. With all of this said, I have to say that Rental Family was a bit too predictable for my taste. Something I can forgive, considering everything else was on the up and up. The cinematography was especially good, showcasing the best of Japan without going into niche exploitation. Everyone’s new/old darling, Brendan Fraser, gave another solid performance with just the right amount of innocence of his character for the story to make sense.
Finally, I want to talk about two things I feel we need to talk about. The first one is the hinted culprit or the underlying cause of most of these issues we have in our modern society. I say modern society, but this is something that has been with us forever. And that’s the tribal system of values and its various ugly offspring, with late-stage capitalism being one of the main ones. I swear I will elaborate on this in the near future. And you won’t miss it as it will be plastered all over the homepage. The second thing is the whole concept of renting people in Japan. Let’s be clear here, the renting in this sense excludes sexual contact and remains in the social and cultural realm.
The first time I learned about this was some two years ago when I watched this YouTube vlog by Sabbatical. Titled “I Rented A Girlfriend And An Obese Man In Tokyo”, it’s a perfect companion to this movie, and I suggest you check it out. It turns out that this whole renting people thing in Japan has been happening since the early nineties. I don’t want to bother you too much with it, so I’ll just leave this link for the Wiki article Rental family service. I can’t resist just one tidbit stating that almost the exact situation, like in this movie, happened in real life. You also might want to check out Werner Herzog’s Family Romance, LLC, exploring much of the same themes.
Director: Hikari
Writers: Hikari, Stephen Blahut
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto
Fun Facts: Brendan Fraser did try to learn Japanese for his role but most of his lines were delivered phonetically.
Rating:
IMDb LInk: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14142060/
