‘Family Romance, LLC’: the Japanese drama funded by ‘Star Wars’

Posted On October 9, 2024October 9, 2024

Few franchises in cinema history have ever stretched further across the cultural sphere than Star Wars, which has reaped unexpected benefits like funding an intimate and independent Japanese drama populated entirely by non-professional actors.

Since George Lucas first took audiences to a galaxy far, far away in 1977, his epic sci-fi saga has never come down from its perch as one of the most popular and beloved brands on the planet, even if the Disney era has become prone to inconsistency and rubbing some of its staunchest fans the wrong way.

Each year, Star Wars generates billions in merchandise sales and has more than recouped the hefty $4billion the Mouse House paid to acquire Lucasfilm in 2012, and the trickle-down economics has manifested itself in some unusual ways, with Family Romance, LLC being one of the most pertinent examples.

Starring Yuichi Ishii and Mahiro Tanimoto, the former runs an unusual business that rents out people to act as husbands, friends, and family members to help the grieving, bereaved, or lonely, navigate a challenging period in their lives.

Ishii is contracted to play the father of a 12-year-old girl who has no memories of her old man, with the bond between the actor and Mahiro strengthening over time despite the fact he’s a total stranger setting a dangerous precedent that could impact the rest of her life by posing as a man he isn’t.

It couldn’t be further removed from Star Wars on every level, and there’s only one direct connection between the two. In what was suitably fitting based on his unpredictable nature, the link between Family Romance, LLC and the corporate-sponsored behemoth was its writer and director, Werner Herzog.

After appearing in three episodes of The Mandalorian as the enigmatic Client, Herzog used the money he’d made from the streaming series to fund the shoestring budget of Family Romance, LLC. He wasn’t rolling in cash by any means, though, shooting on location without the requisite filming permits and drafting in untrained stars, capturing just over 300 minutes of footage in total before whittling it down into an 89-minute cut.

In fairness, if those familiar with the maverick auteur’s work were asked which person to have played a substantial role in a Star Wars project was the most likely to use their earnings to make a small-scale existential drama guerilla-style on the streets of Tokyo, then Werzog would admittedly be pretty near the top of the list.

It just goes to show that even when he’s taking paycheque gigs and growling his way through what amounted to little more than a glorified cameo, Herzog is always thinking about the bigger picture, with his Disney-backed sabbatical allowing him to indulge himself with a passion project.

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