

Little Chie knows that her sister, 3 year-old Itsuki, is unlike her. Chie’s uncle, Mitsuo, is also unusual. Suntanned and adorned in a rustic-looking floppy hat he couldn’t look less like Chie’s neat and respectable father. But Chie is overjoyed when Mitsuo walks back into their lives, having spent three years in a mental institution, and Mitsuo, overwhelmed with emotion, dotes on his two little nieces. This brief harmony is short lived. Frustrated by her little sister, Chie drops her, causing fatal injuries. Unable to allow his niece to take the blame, Mitsuo claims responsibility, shouldering all the condemnation that ensues.
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
JA

Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.

Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who look a lot like their brother. The dad harbors a secret, and he goes to murderous lengths to keep it hidden. The young man, Jimmy, who has suspicions, but little comes out until a Yankee woman comes to town.