Yuichi Ishii's acting career began in a place no one expected. A man who single-handedly built a family rental business, handling thousands of requests per year, was 'discovered' by a world-renowned film director.

In 2017, a long-form feature in the prestigious American magazine The Atlantic changed everything. The article went viral on social media and caught the eye of German master filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Herzog came to Japan and cast Ishii as the lead in his film. The movie screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was released in over 20 countries. A German playwright then incorporated Family Romance's service as the 'methodology' for a stage production at Nuremberg State Theatre.

The ability to 'enter other people's lives' cultivated in the rental family field was not an acting technique — it was an understanding of humanity itself. What Herzog discovered was an overwhelming 'presence' that only a man who has lived thousands of other lives could possess.

From human rental agent to film actor, and then stage actor. An unexpected second life is documented here.