A film adaptation of Yūichi ISHII's book “Ningen Rentaru-ya” about a Japanese rental family agency. Directed and written by Takehito SAKAMOTO (Eternal Maria), this movie focuses on three rent-a-family stories – a single mother who rents a father for her daughter; a parent and child dependent on a rental family; and a girl who discovers the truth about her father after her mother's death.
The cast includes Shun SHIOYA, Nanami KAWAKAMI and Yua SHIRAISHI. Theatrical release in Japan is scheduled for June 10, 2023.
It is interesting to note Ishii's real-life business, Family Romance, has been the subject of several English news articles examining the rent-a-family industry in Japan. However, in 2020, The New Yorker appended an editor's note to their 2018 article reporting false claims made by those interviewed and revealing Ishii's business to be generally a scam.
