Hikari on Loneliness, Being Japanese and RENTAL FAMILY – Nadine Whitney interviews (Exclusive!)
Hikari’s tender film Rental Family takes Phillip (Brendan Fraser) an out of work actor living in Japan through the phenomenon of role playing as a real-life character in the lives of Japanese people who require a figure to act as family or friend. At the heart of the film is the epidemic of loneliness and Japan’s difficulties in dealing with mental health and social difference. Hikari, herself, experienced isolation and loneliness when she participated in an exchange program in America. Nadine Whitney speaks with Hikari about reaching out to people to create chosen families.
NADINE WHITNEY: There’s a line that you have given to Brendan Fraser’s character Phillip which really resonated with me, where he is saying, “I’ve been in Japan for seven years now” and the response is “You could live in Japan for [decades] and you would never understand it.” I think that’s a really wonderful line, written to allow the audience into what seems, for people outside of Japan, a strange but long-standing practice. Can you tell me a little bit about writing those pieces of dialogue with Brendan to let him know what’s going on in this particular world?
HIKARI: Brendan’s character is us. I want the audience to experience what he’s experiencing. It’s basically to get in his skin and just see what is it like to be working in this industry, right? But then I also want the audience to feel that, you know, it’s okay that there’s things that you don’t understand. You know, we don’t expect you to understand all these perhaps crazy ideas of a Rental Family, but let’s just dive in and see what happens, right? And it is true, though, because I’m Japanese, and there are certain things that I still don’t understand. I am a full Japanese person, grew up in Japan. I wanted to give permissions for audience to be curious and be okay but just go on this journey and see what happens with it, you know? That’s why we wrote that line, and also, it’s kind of funny, in a way. [laughs] It introduces who we are as the Japanese. And then, again, I really want the audience to understand the Japanese culture, and obviously, you know, through Brendan’s eyes. So, I hope we achieved it.
NADINE WHITNEY: You did. I went home and watched Werner Herzog’s film Family Romance, LLC to get that another, less-tender version of the phenomenon. I thought, “Okay, so this is really a thing.” I can see how, for some people, it’s a balm.
HIKARI: Really, for me the world is so disconnected. I just wanted to connect the audience or connect people around the world. Okay, just let’s hold hands together if you feel lonely. It’s okay to feel that way too, but you may also want to take one step and, you know, be really truthful for what you want. And let’s be respectful of what you want, rather than what everybody else wants. To be selfish and just go with it and then take that step and then see what happens. That’s what our life is all about.
