As a decades-long Tokyo-based film critic, I’ve screened a succession of films about foreigners in Japan, each claiming to “break the cultural barrier.” They are usually made by directors overconfident in their ability to do so, who expect praise for even taking on the subject. (They often get it, but it’s, you know, of the polite variety.)

So I approached director Hikari’s (Beef, Tokyo Vice) film with a healthy skepticism (moi?). It’s about Phillip, a struggling American actor in Tokyo (Brendan Fraser) who lands an unusual job working for an agency that supplies actors to stand in as relatives, clients or friends for a variety of bogus (but legal) reasons. 

We follow Phillip through a number of assigned “roles,” with the central plotline having him pose as a husband to Hitomi, a single-mother trying to get her young daughter Mia into a school that frowns on single-parent families. The ruse works, but when Phillip has to move on to the next job, he finds in this fake family the purpose his life has been lacking.

Well, color me odoroita! This old cynic liked it! The film works in no small part because of Frasier’s most excellent, understated performance, and the supporting cast is uniformly engaging. The language barrier is dealt with through the use of subtle nuances, timing and expressions. I was moved. Sure, Hikari pushes your emotional buttons, but she has the skill to do it without your even knowing it.

The other plot lines work equally as well, with plenty of surprises, connections, heartwarming realizations and believable characters, all sprinkled with bits of screwball comedy. It rings true. Omedeto. (109 min)