<\/p>\n
The U.K. premiere of Searchlight Pictures\u2019 Rental Family<\/em> will take place at the 69th<\/sup>\u00a0BFI London Film Festival, running Oct. 8-19, in partnership with American Express. The gala screening on Thursday, Oct. 16, is expected to bring director Hikari (37 Seconds, Beef<\/em>) and star Brendan Fraser to the British capital.<\/p>\n Directed and co-written by Hikari, Rental Family<\/em> also stars Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, and Akira Emoto. Set in modern-day Tokyo, the film follows an American actor (Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig, working for a Japanese \u201crental family\u201d agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAs he immerses himself in his clients\u2019 worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality,\u201d reads a synopsis. \u201cConfronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.\u201d<\/p>\n Rental Family<\/em>, set for a U.K. theatrical release in January 2026, was produced by Eddie Vaisman, Julie Lebedev, Hikari, and Shin Yamaguchi.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel so humbled and honored to return to the 2025 BFI London Film Festival with my second feature, Rental Family<\/em>, and with a gala presentation!\u201d said Hikari. \u201cWhile it\u2019s inspired by a real, and sometimes unusual, business in Japan, it\u2019s ultimately about people longing for connection, and discovering the meaning of true friendship in modern Tokyo. I hope Rental Family<\/em> offers a bit of escapism to Japan and a few laughs!\u201d<\/p>\n Said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director:\u00a0\u201cFollowing the acclaimed 37 Seconds<\/em> and the subversive, roller coaster ride of Beef<\/em>, we are excited to bring writer-director Hikari\u2019s latest comedy-drama Rental Family<\/em> to the BFI London Film Festival as our American Express Gala. Brendan Fraser is set to steal movie fans\u2019 hearts once more with his stunning central performance in a film that explores the complexity of human relations with huge generosity and wit.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.K. premiere of Searchlight Pictures\u2019 Rental Family will take place at the 69th\u00a0BFI London Film Festival, running Oct. 8-19, in partnership with American Express. The gala screening on Thursday, Oct. 16, is expected to bring director Hikari (37 Seconds, Beef) and star Brendan Fraser to the British capital. Directed and co-written by Hikari, Rental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1957774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[343909,343908,342228,343910,343912,342229,343911],"class_list":["post-1957773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-american-express","tag-bfi-london-film-festival","tag-brendan-fraser","tag-hikari","tag-mari-yamamoto","tag-rental-family","tag-shannon-mahina-gorman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Brendan-Frasers-\u2018Rental-Family-Directed-by-Hikari-Set-for-London.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1957773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1957773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1957773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1957773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}