Werner Herzog takes a tiny crew to Japan and makes a mostly fake documentary about a business, FAMILY ROMANCE, who rent out people to portray family members and friends, fulfilling wishes, and helping work through emotional issues.
Yuichi Ishii is the man in charge, and alsdo one of the "life actors", and in the film we follow his time with a young 12 year old girl,, Mahiro, whose mother has hired him to be astand in for her absent father. Play acting and some innocent lies (or are they?) lead to an attachment from both Mahiro, as well as her mother, who has been using the sessions to get information about her daughters emotional state.
Cast with non-professional actors, FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC underscores the loneliness and separation of society, some peoples' need for human contact at any cost, and the fact that almost anything can be bought if you have enough money to spend.
FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC is both beautiful, sad, as well as a little disturbing, and maybe pathetic. It's a good film, but I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed it. Not my favorite of Herzog's documentary work, but still well worth seeing.
- 7/10
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