Laundry

Running time: 126 mins

Director Junichi Mori employs a thoughtful hand in this stunningly lyrical first feature about healing scars from the past, finding love, and receiving second chances. Teru works at a laundromat and has seen plenty of people try to wash away both the stains on their clothes and the stains on their past. Teru is a pure-hearted, twenty-year old who dons a knit cap to cover the scar from a childhood accident that left him in intellectual stagnancy. Trapped in perpetual childhood, he watches his grandmother's coin laundry shop, keeping up with a band of interesting and comedic regulars. One day, a beautiful but sullen woman walks into Teru's simple life. Mizue is haunted by her past. She leaves behind a bloodstained dress in one of the machines, hoping to cleanse herself and receive a new beginning. Discovering the dress, Teru embarks on a journey and a new beginning of his own, where his innocent smile casts hope on even the hopeless. Winner of the highly competitive Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award, Laundry is an unusual love story that delicately interweaves unique characters and a strong visual sense and captures the nostalgic beauty of a contradictory Japan. Reviewed by Yoshie Suzuki