Korean sales company Fine Cut has acquired the international sales rights to the Japanese horror-thriller film “Wash Away” and will exhibit it at the European Film Market in Berlin.
The thriller centers on two vacationers who stay for free at a secluded lakeside resort and encounter an evil force tied to local folklore about water’s ability to purify the soul. First-time feature director Takuya Miyahara uses this premise to examine Japan’s so-called “Satori Generation,” young people struggling against defeatism amid Japan’s economic decline and demographic challenges. The film explores how despair can drive individuals into dangerous denial and detachment from reality.
Miyahara previously directed the short film Suck, which was screened at the 46th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. After learning through the ENBU Seminar directing program, he honed his skills through the Sundance Institute/NHK Prize Screenwriting Initiative and attended specialized workshops in Los Angeles and New York.
The cast includes Jingi Irie, known for “Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween -Destiny-,” who plays the role of a reclusive vacationer who has doubts about the atmosphere of the resort. Makoto Tanaka in “Michigusa” plays a partner who grows closer as dark truths are revealed.
Production company Nothing New announces the project. This outfit “AnyMart” was selected for this year’s Berlinale Forum section. Nothing New’s recent films include “Happy Ice Cream” and “Diary of the Ghost,” which were screened in this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival short and medium-length program, as well as “Void,” which was in Tiger Competition at the 53rd Rotterdam International Film Festival.
“Wash Away” is currently in post-production, and Fine Cut plans to screen early footage for buyers in the European film market.
Finecut’s Berlin lineup also includes South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s latest film, The Day She Returns, which is in this year’s Berlin Panorama section. The company’s European Film Market calendar includes “Long Long Night,” a 3D animation based on a Korean novel about a lone rhinoceros who befriends a penguin who hatches from an abandoned egg and embarks on an emotional journey to the sea. “Tristes Tropiques”, an action noir by genre specialist Park Hoon-jung. And the omnibus “Time of Cinema,” which was screened at Panorama at last year’s Busan International Film Festival, examines the relationship between filmmakers, audiences, and the medium itself.
