RENTAL FAMILY

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

Phillip Vandarploeug (Brendan Fraser) is an actor who has been living in Japan for the last seven years. He takes on small parts in commercials and bit roles in some films and shows. Phillip is seen observing his neighbors from his apartment window, highlighting how lonely he feels.

Phillip’s agent Sonia (Helen Sadler) calls him to play a role of “Sad American”. He goes to what appears to be a funeral, but he is surprised to see that the man in the coffin, Mr. Daito (Shohei Uno), is very much alive, and that the mourners are paid actors. Phillip meets with Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hira), the manager of the Rental Family agency that operates this sort of business. He gives Phillip his card and invites him to his office.

Upon arriving at the Rental Family office, Phillip meets Shinji’s employees Aiko Nakajima (Mari Yamamoto) and Kota Nakano (Bun Kimura). Shinji explains to Phillip that the agency hires people to fill roles in other peoples’ lives to sell emotions, and they needed Phillip to fulfill a “token white guy” role. Phillip thinks the job relies too much on lying to someone and turns it down, until Shinji and Kota say they remember Phillip from a popular toothpaste commercial from a while back, and, seeing how happy it made people, Phillip agrees.

The first job Phillip receives is posing as a fiance for a woman named Yoshie (Misato Morita). On the day of the wedding, Aiko is distressed to see that Phillip is nowhere to be found. She finds him hiding in the bathroom, where he is getting cold feet. Aiko urges him to go through with it because he could be ruining Yoshie’s life if he doesn’t. Phillip goes through with it, and later learns that Yoshie just needed to put on the ceremony front for her family so that she can move to Canada with her actual wife, Jun (Nanami Kawakami). Yoshie and Jun thank Phillip for his service before he leaves, but he finds the experience to have been rewarding.

Phillip takes on another Rental Family gig by posing as the long lost father to a mixed race girl named Mia Kawasaki (Shannon Mahina Gorman), whose mother Hitomi (Shino Shinozaki) wants to get her enrolled in a prestigious school but was already turned down once due to being a single mother. When Phillip meets Mia as “Kevin”, she is angry at her “father” for abandoning her family, but he tries to appeal to her and convince her he is there for her. Mia makes him promise to never leave, which Phillip reluctantly does.

Phillip talks to Shinji about how it is hard to connect with Mia. Shinji sends him on another job, to pretend to be a journalist interviewing a former actor, Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), who is kept under close watch by his daughter Masami (Sei Matobu). Phillip also takes other gigs, including one where he goes to a guy’s house just to play video games with him and let him win.

Aino is shown taking a job where she pretends to be a mistress for the husband to confront his wife with. This causes the wives to often slap Aino, leaving her with visible bruises.

Phillip goes to Mia’s school as her dad to try and bond with her during a parents day. Mia spots one of her classmates whose parents didn’t come, and she asks Phillip to be his dad for the day as well. Phillip obliges her request.

During one of Phillip’s sessions with Kikuo, he takes the old man out for a meal and learns that he was not so close with Masami when he was working. Kikuo advises Phillip to spend as much time as possible with his “daughter”. Phillip turns away for a moment, and Kikuo is gone. He runs out into the street to get him, realizing that Kikuo is suffering from dementia. When Kikuo later asks Phillip to help him perform a “jailbreak” to visit his old childhood home, Phillip refuses for fear of Kikuo’s safety and wellbeing.

Phillip later accompanies Mia to a Monster Cat Festival, where they both get their faces painted. They bond more, and Mia gives Phillip her number so they can communicate when he is not home. Phillip later gets a call from Sonia, who tells him that he won a coveted role in a detective series that is going to shoot in South Korea, but he turns it down since he has become so close with Mia.

Before the interview for Mia’s admission into the other school, Hitomi learns that her daughter is talking to Phillip over the phone. She tells Phillip to not get so close to her since she will just be disappointed when he has to go, and reminds him he is not her real father. During the interview, the administrators are touched by Phillip’s dedication to Mia’s growth and progress. However, Hitomi later forces Phillip to tell Mia that he has to return to the United States indefinitely, leaving both of them heartbroken as they bid each other farewell.

Phillip has a change of heart regarding Kikuo and helps sneak him out at night so they can travel together. Kikuo brings Phillip to his old home, where he had kept buried pictures of Masami when she was a child. Kikuo weeps for the time that he never spent with her. Phillip gets a phone call from Shinji, who is angry that he took Kikuo away from his home, even though Phillip emphasizes that it was all Kikuo’s idea. He also calls Shinji a hypocrite for selling these emotions to people when they are just filling holes in peoples’ lives. While going up a hill, Kikuo suffers a fall and is hospitalized.

Shinji, Aiko, and Kota learn of Phillip’s arrest and how he is in danger of being deported if his innocence is not proven within 48 hours. Aiko confronts Shinji about the way the agency operates as well, especially in regards to the abuse she suffers. Aiko and Kota disguise themselves as lawyers and are able to get Kikuo to convince Masami to drop the charges against Phillip.

At Mia’s home, she sees a pirate movie where Phillip is one of the actors in it. Hitomi gets the news that Mia got accepted into the school, but she questions her mother as to who Phillip really is. Hitomi comes clean and cries over lying to Mia, but she forgives her mother.

At Shinji’s home, it is revealed that his wife and son are just Rental Family actors as well, and he is just as alone as Phillip is. Meanwhile, Aiko is brought to confront another angry housewife, but when the husband pushes her too much, Aiko comes clean to the wife and reveals her husband is too much of a coward to present the real mistress.

Phillip is released from custody, but he later learns that Kikuo has passed away in his sleep. He attends the funeral, which is similar to the fake funeral that he attended, only now there are real people grieving, including Masami as she eulogizes her father. Phillip pays his final respects to his friend.

Mia begins attending her new school. Phillip shows up, having gotten permission from Hitomi to see Mia. He tells her his real name and that he is an actor. Although she is still a bit upset at first, she forgives Phillip to, and they appear to continue a friendship.

The Rental Family agency continues thriving, with Phillip still working there. Shinji announces they have retired the “apology services”, which is what led to Aiko getting abused.

After work, Phillip goes to a shrine where he went with Kikuo to pray. The blinds blow open, and Phillip sees his reflection in the mirror inside, causing him to chuckle to himself.

Phillip Vanderploeg is an American actor living in Japan. He struggles to find decent work and is usually lonely. Phillip gets hired by the Rental Family agency, which employs actors to fill roles in the lives of strangers, such as for friendship or being a pretend fiance to keep up appearances for the client's family.

Phillip's two main jobs involve being a fake father to a little girl named Mia since her mother Hitomi needs a father figure to help Mia get enrolled into a prestigious school, as well as pretending to be a reporter interviewing an aging actor named Kikuo Hasegawa. Phillip forms genuine bonds with Mia and Kikuo, even though Hitomi, plus Kikuo's daughter Masami, try to establish boundaries. After a successful interview, Hitomi makes Phillip cut ties with Mia. He later takes Kikuo, who suffers from dementia, from his home to visit his childhood home, but after Kikuo suffers a fall, Phillip is taken into custody for kidnapping. Two fellow Rental Agency actors, Aiko and Kota, pretend to be lawyers to help bail Phillip out.

Kikuo later passes away, and Phillip goes to pay his respects. He is also given permission by Hitomi to continue being Mia's friend, even though she now knows who he really is. Phillip continues to work for Rental Family with a newfound lease on life.