うぉっしゅ 「Uosshu」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 114 mins.
Director: Ikunosuke Okazaki
Writer: Ikunosuke Okazaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuuka Nakao, Naoko Ken, Kazuya Shimasa, Naoko Takagi, Maki Isonishi,
How’s this for an elevator pitch:
A soapland sex worker finds her customer care qualities come in handy when she commits to caring for her dementia-suffering grandmother and an existential examination of loneliness occurs.
That, bluntly speaking, is the premise of Wash Away, a domestic drama which finds commonality in its differing protagonists thanks to a slickly-engineered screenplay and confident visualisation.
The sophomore feature from up-and-coming writer/director Ikunosuke Okazaki, Wash Away is a fun follow-on from his debut feature, Encouragement of Euthanasia (2022), in that he approaches dark subject matter from an odd angle and with a light-heartedness. Here, it is the loneliness engendered by a materialistic society and its effects on people from two disparate worlds, an aspect Okazaki plays up for maximum effect.
Our two leads are 20-something Kana (Yuuka Nakao) and her grandmother Kie (Naoko Ken) and they couldn’t be more different. Kana is a seemingly carefree young woman who buys luxuries from money earned by washing clients in a soapland somewhere in the gaudy neon glow of night-time Tokyo while Kie, whom she hasn’t seen in years, is bedbound in a silent house in a depopulated area.
Emphasising their differences and the gaudy consumerist bubble that Kana lives in, Okazaki plays up Kana’s Instagrammable life in visually dazzling sequences defined by cotton-candy-coloured sets, kinetic editing, the sound of fizzing champagne and club music, and the constant energy of a lot of people and designer objects on screen. He then smartly contrasts it with the slower and more isolated-feeling sequences for Kie who we see alone in her cold grey-white toned home somewhere closer to the country. A natural tension emerges because the younger woman has to juggle two lives when she takes care of her relative. In so doing, she tries and fails to bring her energy to her elderly relative due to the difficulties of dementia and, after struggling, has to reckon with the course her own life has taken and if she finds fulfilment.
This existential questioning is deftly done because a relationship can act as a mirror and as Kana struggles to communicate with her grandmother, she recognises Kie’s isolation and sees something of her own reflected. This effect is naturally created because Okazaki’s story structure of parallel lives perfectly allows the film to pivot to showing the loneliness present for both protagonists.
We are clued in to this by Okazaki’s sprinkling in of echoic motifs of isolation and alienation: match-cuts catch the women performing similar solitary poses and staring at screens for distraction. The sight of the two bathed in the glow of a television/phone and those devices being the only sign of life, save for the occasional caretaker that visits each woman, becomes haunting as the film transitions to more serious territory.
As the story tries to make firm the bridge between the two lead characters we get the sight of elderly people left alone by relatives while Kana and co-workers talk about how they are forgotten by clients. In a canny bit of writing, this notion of being forgotten leads into the idea that the elderly woman’s dementia is caused by being forgotten by her family and as Kana explores that feeling with Kie, there is self-reflection that leads to growth and a further building out of Kie’s story as her background is explored.
This is smart writing. The switching of gears via screenplay is deftly done and while the psychology might be simplistic, the emotions driving the characters ring true and there is never a dull moment. It is visually fun and adventurous as Okazaki uses a range of cinematic techniques to communicate to the audience. The subsequent character growth that plays up how the two lead characters use their differences to form a genuine connection is based on how human relations are valued and that is satisfyingly delivered through enjoyable sequences where youth culture and an elderly person’s experience of it go awry.
It all feels intuitively handled by Okazaki but that feeling could not have been achieved without the film’s leads who imbue the their characters with warmth. Nakao and Ken bring their unlikely bond to life through events where Kie acts rebelliously and Kana reacts and is forced to grow. Their individual journeys and eventual meeting relies on the two playing up their polar-opposite personalities into conflict and then going through the push-and-pull of obligation and resentment to finding unity and they mesh together well here. There is a theatrical air to their performances that matches the visual aesthetic but you are with them all the way, particularly Kana. Nakao is great at playing the sort of character who is wilful, resentful but also capable of regret, of reflecting, of remembering her duties, and renewing her efforts and learning to love and this journey is a heart-warming one to watch while it also reminds viewers to take time to appreciate the people in their lives.
Put aside any scepticism you might have over the set-up because this works well as vivid characters and a solid exploration of isolation in modern society are visualised in a compelling way. It is fun and slickly delivered but feels earnest and it earns emotional investment due to the easy interplay of Yuuka Nakao and Naoko Ken.
Wash Away had its World Premiere at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 on March 01st. It will play again on March 07 at Cine Libre Umeda Cinema 4 at 10:10.