Family Romance, LLC

An interpretation of the deceptive world we increasingly inhabit, as an agency provides surrogates for just about anything you fancy. Performed as a convincing faux documentary in Japan - robots next. Imagine how deplorable and low the human race will be able to sink then and you'll never be arrested.

The film is a bit slow in places and there are some boring bits, but the concept itself is interesting. A man has an company who rents substitutes for fathers, businessmen, etc. He begins forming a relationship with the daughter of a wealthy, Yuri Kagami-esque woman who is a divorced widow, by pretending to be her father. Unfortunately it goes against his own company policy. Will he tell Mahiro the truth or become her actual father? The last few minutes of the film are the best. There's a little bit of insight into Japanese racism, as Mahiro befriends a little girl for having dark skin.

The photography is beautiful. The vistas of Tokyo are stunning. It's definitely worth watching.

"Family Romance is admirable. I think it's an incredible company. You create illusions to make life of your clients better. That should make you feel good. That's really praiseworthy, isn't it?"

"At Family Romance, we are not allowed to love or to be loved. So, I need to be more careful... this time, you should rent a death."

Google will tell you more regarding "Family Rental Service".

A most fascinating and thought provoking business model that I highly recommend we adopt in this country. I would love to work for a family rental service. The closest thing we have to it here is those third party matching websites like rent a friend and rent a date. Not quite the same thing as making a career out of an admirable business the way they show here.

Docudrama style but fictional, making it almost a mockumentary but not quite? Little slow in parts, compensated by beautiful cinematography, almost like a mini travelogue.

The Wind Phone is a phone booth in Japan which people use to hold conversations with their loved ones lost in the tsunami of 2011. Here Herzog puts a woman on a cliff facing the ocean and gives her a receiver. "Did you speak with someone dead?, they ask her after she hangs up. "No. I tried instead to reach someone alive", she answers and you immediately recognize your communication with the living is as one-way as this. The existential solitude of modern man is on focus in this fine drama telling the invented story of a very real company called Family Romance which rents out actors to fill the gaps in our interpersonal relations.

I'm gonna be brief here: everyone could have done a documentary about this topic. We're talking about a japanese agency specialized in renting substitutes for dead family members! Herzog gives us coordinates and help us to ask the right questions to understand our apparently weird world. What is the role of the illusion? What connection does it have with the robotics and cinema? Is it totally evil? There's no judgment in the director's eye. Only representation, critical look and, of course, illusion.