Brendan Fraser, the Academy Award winner for The Whale, brought Hikari's Tokyo comedy-drama Rental Family to London as the festival's American Express Gala.
Hikari’s Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, had its UK premiere as the American Express Gala at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank on Thursday 16 October 2025. Fraser walked the carpet with the director.
Rental Family is the second feature from Hikari, director of 37 Seconds.
Fraser was born in Indianapolis in 1968 to Canadian parents. Encino Man and School Ties made his name in 1992, and The Mummy films made him a star. After a quieter decade, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale won him the Academy Award for Best Actor, the first for a Canadian.
Fraser plays an American actor adrift in Tokyo who takes work with an agency that hires out stand-in relatives and friends, until the roles begin to feel real.
Fraser’s link to London predates his career: a family holiday in the 1970s took him to Oliver! in the West End, the show he credits with his interest in acting. The film had opened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and Searchlight Pictures brought it to British cinemas in January 2026.
Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman and Akira Emoto complete the cast.