On Friday April 20 the festival saw a gala screening of the supernatural comedy and drama Room Laundering. Cinema Q in Naha’s Main Place mall was completely sold out and the air was abuzz with excitement for this World Premiere.

The title refers to a shady real estate practice where agents put a friend or relative in an apartment where someone has died to make it further removed from the tragedy. In this way the estate agency can skirt the law of informing new tenants about the death. Miko (Eleiza Ikeda) is a dark, depressive 20-year old whose mother abandoned her when she was a toddler. As her father had already passed away she was raised by her grandmother who died when she was a teenager. This led to her becoming an extreme loner and working as a room launderer for her uncle, a shady estate agent played by lauded actor Joe Odagiri. Miko has a dark secret in addition to her tragic family history. She can see ghosts. So when she moves into tainted apartments there is often a ghost of the deceased hanging around.

Her new place is inhabited by a punk rocker who killed himself because he felt his music wasn’t good enough. Just when he and Miko are getting comfortable with each other she’s moved to another place, where the grisly murder of a woman took place. Miko’s relationship with these ghosts brings her to a place where she can accept the hand fate dealt her with her parents. In addition the next door neighbor Akito, played by actor Kentaro, is a nerd but a sweet and caring man who takes an interest in Miko, drawing her out of her shell.

The packed screening saw a stage appearance by the director Kenji Katagiri, and actress Eleiza Ikeda and actor Kentaro. Katagiri notes, “This is the first time the film has been screened in a theater and I’m quite nervous.” He went on to explain the idea for the original script. “The scriptwriter and I were drinking at an izekaya (small bar restaurant) and making notes and that is the origin of this script.” Ikeda explained, “You can imagine you know someone like my character in this movie, Miko. It’s a fantasy but I think people can feel close to Miko.” She continued, “My character is kind of pessimistic and dark and the other characters in the film are strong so when I portrayed Miko I tried to play-off of the other characters in the film.” Kentaro added, “The character I portrayed is kind of Yin and I’m kind of Yang so I didn’t share so much in common with my character. I can feel some commonality with Akito though because he has a sense of justice and because of this he regrets certain things.”

• Tweet