{"id":6296,"date":"2026-04-14T11:14:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/?p=6296"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:00:29","slug":"movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie and Book Study: &#8220;Rental Family&#8221; and &#8220;Rental Person Who Does Nothing&#8221; &#8211; Online NCTA Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This program is now full and registration has closed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Educators joined us for a movie <em>and<\/em> book club and stepped into <strong>Shoji Morimoto<\/strong>\u2019s life \u201cas a rental person who does nothing.\u201d His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/128183600-rental-person-who-does-nothing\"><strong>short memoir<\/strong><\/a> (by the same name) chronicles his adventures providing a service to \u201cthe lonely and social anxious.\u201d We also focused on<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt14142060\/\"><em>Rental Family<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong> a poignant comedy-drama stars Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, whose character has lived in Japan for seven years, speaks Japanese, and lands a job with a Tokyo rental company. Through his surrogate roles, he becomes deeply immersed and then entangled in the complex lives of young and old Tokyo residents.<\/p>\n<p>NCTA seminar instructor <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/people\/tese-neighbor\/\"><strong>Tese Wintz Neighbor<\/strong><\/a> lead this guided discussion of the film and book.<\/p>\n<p>You can view the trailer of the movie below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"RENTAL FAMILY | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n0pqP6ClcE8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Dates and Times<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Participants wereassigned (with flexibility) to one of the following two sessions:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Group 1: Wednesday, May 27, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Group 2: Thursday, May 28, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Program Requirements:<\/strong> This Book and Movie Study was held over Zoom. Teachers were expected to view the movie ahead of time (2 hours) and read the short book (2 hours), complete a short assignment, and participate in the two-hour Zoom session with video camera on.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Program benefits<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A physical copy of the book<\/li>\n<li>Online Resource packet<\/li>\n<li>Six free Washington State OSPI clock hours<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Program resources<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/padlet.com\/earc\/may-2026-movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-perso-a7eqc9map2dnqn52\">this link<\/a> for the Padlet with the program resources made by program leader.<\/p>\n<p><em>This program was sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington, and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the <a href=\"http:\/\/nctasia.org\/\">National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This program is now full and registration has closed. Educators joined us for a movie and book club and stepped into Shoji Morimoto\u2019s life \u201cas a rental person who does nothing.\u201d His short memoir (by the same name) chronicles his adventures providing a service to \u201cthe lonely and social anxious.\u201d We also focused on\u00a0Rental Family,<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-past-programs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Movie and Book Study: &quot;Rental Family&quot; and &quot;Rental Person Who Does Nothing&quot; - Online NCTA Program - East Asia Resource Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie and Book Study: &quot;Rental Family&quot; and &quot;Rental Person Who Does Nothing&quot; - Online NCTA Program - East Asia Resource Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This program is now full and registration has closed. Educators joined us for a movie and book club and stepped into Shoji Morimoto\u2019s life \u201cas a rental person who does nothing.\u201d His short memoir (by the same name) chronicles his adventures providing a service to \u201cthe lonely and social anxious.\u201d We also focused on\u00a0Rental Family,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"East Asia Resource Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-14T11:14:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T21:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Silvia De Cassan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Silvia De Cassan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\",\"name\":\"Movie and Book Study: \\\"Rental Family\\\" and \\\"Rental Person Who Does Nothing\\\" - Online NCTA Program - East Asia Resource Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-14T11:14:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-03T21:00:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/#\/schema\/person\/561eddccb4b85f933856df22c2814e69\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/movie-and-book-study-rental-family-and-rental-person-who-does-nothing-online-ncta-program\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Movie and Book Study: &#8220;Rental Family&#8221; and &#8220;Rental Person Who Does Nothing&#8221; &#8211; Online NCTA Program\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/earc\/\",\"name\":\"East Asia Resource Center\",\"description\":\"The Henry M. 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