Rental Family with Hikari

In Rental Family, the new Tokyo-set drama starring Brendan Fraser, writer-director Hikari poses the question: “Can fantasies and fictions ever fill the gaps left in our lives by the people we miss; the things that we long for?” It’s a question the filmmaker – real name Mitsuyo Miyazaki – sets up and then resists answering in any declarative way. Instead, the film – about a washed-up American actor named Phillip who begins playing roles in the lives of strangers – treads around the topic with curiosity and empathy. Loneliness and loss, this drama seems to say, are a part of life, and sometimes we as a species go to unusual lengths in search of a balm for that pain. That’s not necessarily healthy. It’s not necessarily unhealthy either. It’s just something that we do. And it leads to phenomena like “rental families” – a concept that really does exist in Japan, in which actors perform the role of a loved one in exchange for a fee. In today's spoiler conversation, Hikari – a former dancer and rap photographer, best known in film and TV for her work on the Netflix series Beef – joins Al to discuss what the growth of rental families in her home country of Japan says about where we’re at as a society. The filmmaker breaks down how she translated the universal loneliness epidemic that the rental family industry is testament to, into this beautifully understated tale. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek .

You can listen to Rental Family with Hikari online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Rental Family with Hikari is an episode from Script Apart by Script Apart.

This episode is 52:13 long.

This episode was published on Feb 14, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Script Apart when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.