Rental Family, Interview with the film's director Hikari and Mari Yamamoto

Think there's, I mean, there's so much of what's happening and when we're coming up with these ideas, and when I find out about this business itself, I, I don't know anything about it. I'm Japanese, and, you know, this, this what is about the renting a family member? You know, what is the, why do these people exist? And what are they doing? Like, you know, how, what kind of people who are helping, right? So for me, it was during the time of pandemic as well. So we were kind of in the place where it's unknown, and, uh, felt like isolation was just taking over our life, and we really wanted to come up with a story that, uh, where we can bridge the, you know, people, connect the people together and bridge the gap, and just, you know, just all of us together and just build this family, even though it's fake. So that was kind of the way we wanted to, I don't know, give the story to the people that whose, um, who perhaps need it the most.

And, uh, yeah, you know, when you think about Brendan's character, Philip, just going on this journey and his discovery of who he is as a person through the connection they, you know, through the people he meets, all through the connections that he discovers through this business, um, I think I just couldn't avoid to go through starting from the vulnerability, just being who he is, really meeting all these people, and just finding the life that he never expected to have and the joy he receives, and that I think there's no way we can avoid that, you know, it's human emotion. Everybody's just like, oh, there he is.

Everybody, every character in this movie really invest, you know, the relationship with Brendan's character Philip, and, uh, yeah, I think, uh, we did something really special. And, and you know, I would hope that the, my audience will, our audience will just pick up a phone and call people who haven't been talked to. You know, just reach out and just, and also hear somebody who's just really feeling loneliness, right? Lonely, or feels like there's, uh, things that are missing in their lives, then I really want them to feel that you're not alone. You know, we just have to, you know, got up the ladder and just see the world from a different perspective because that will take us to the next level. The next the door is going to open for us, right? So.