Welcome back to the Asian A.V. Club podcast series HANG! On this episode, we talk to director, writer and producer Hikari about her latest seasonal gem feature Rental Family.

Total NERD disclosure, I’ve been a fan of director Hikari after I saw her name appear in a few episodes of the Emmy winning Netflix series Beef and was even more intrigued when I realized it was the creative moniker of Osaka born Mitsuyo Miyazaki, who chose the word “Hikari” as her name.

Rental Family, is an actual true service in Japan where individuals can hire ‘actors’ to play different roles for different needs in their lives, In the film, a lonely isolated out of work western actor, played by Brenden Fraser (Philip), is hired as a token white guy to enter various lives including an alleged journalist asked to interview a legendary Japanese actor who is actually losing his memory, the other to play an American father to an 11 year old girl, who’s single mother needs this man in order to get her daughter into a prestigious private school.

As the film progresses, Philip can’t help but get caught deeper in these false relationships and in the end has to make a decision to what it truly means to him and the people around him. There are so many wonderful moments of love and humanity that exist in Hikari’s examination of relationships, which makes Rental Family one of this season’s sweet gems.

I got some time with Hikari to talk about her creative upbringing, the lessons she learned working on tv shows, and the domino effect of love and kindness and honesty that connects the characters in her film.

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Thanks again bye!!