The Rental Family

I love culturally nuanced films, and The Rental Family is definitely one of them. Co-written by the director Hikari and Stephen Blahut, it follows an American actor who begins working for a Japanese rental family service, which hires actors to stand in for missing or non-existent people in real lives.

The film emphasizes vulnerability and connection in a gentle, non-preaching way. Apparently, the script was developed during the pandemic, and the isolation and loneliness of that period inspired the writers to make these feelings part of the story’s core.

I feel that stories shaped during the pandemic often reflect a deeper yearning for human connection than others. It amazes me how perseverant we are as human beings, how we manage to reach for the opposite emotion of what’s happening outside. Maybe that’s why I find myself meditating on love lately, at a time when the world feels bleaker than usual.