‘Wash Away’ brightens dementia drama with sudsy spin

Not all of the many Japanese films about dementia are sober-faced medical melodramas. Azuma Morisaki’s 2013 “Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days,” for example, found laughs as well as tears in its story of a balding middle-aged guy caring for his elderly mom as her memory slips away.

An even lighter, brighter take on this devastating disease is Ikunosuke Okazaki’s “Wash Away,” which stars veteran TV personality Naoko Ken as Kie, a boomer who was apparently once quite successful but is now in the last stages of dementia.

I say “apparently” because Okazaki’s original script says little about Kie’s life before falling ill or why her perky granddaughter Kana (Yuuka Nakao) is a sex worker at a “soapland” (a bathhouse/brothel), diligently washing her clients before providing undefined sexual services.

The film offers a fresh, positive look at caregiving, while illuminating the psychological and societal contributors to the worsening of dementia, isolation being prime among them. Despite its pop vibe with visuals that recall the pastel worlds of Wes Anderson, “Wash Away” turns out to be more substantive and heartfelt than its coy stylistics suggest.

When we first meet Kana, she is greeting a pudgy older client, who looks as though he can’t believe his luck. But the story quickly pivots from frothy erotic comedy to family drama with Kana’s mom, who needs hip surgery and asks Kana to care for Kie during the day for the week she is in the hospital.

Kana reluctantly agrees, but has not seen her grandmother for eight years. When she hesitantly enters her spacious, Western-style house, Kie greets her as though she were a stranger — which she is.

Nonetheless, Kana takes her new role seriously, perusing YouTube how-to videos and her mother’s detailed instructions. But she also keeps laboring at her soapland on the night shift since, as we see in a series of dryly comic cuts, she has a serious shopping addiction. Kana also pays a brisk, unjudgmental housekeeper (Naoko Takagi) to keep her messy apartment from descending into chaos.

At least she is not pouring her earnings into a host club like her mercurial colleague Kumi (Aya Nishibori). Still, she resists the advice of a wised-up co-worker, Sumire (Yukari Nakagawa), who warns her that “only money can take care of you when you’re old.”

The story gives us these and other glimpses into the darker side of sex work, but it is more about Kana’s inner journey as she cares for her grandmother. Though frustrated with the job’s demands and Kie’s inability to recognize her from day to day (or minute to minute), Kana never completely gives up and learns how to engage and even have fun with her grandmother. Dyeing Kie’s hair pink turns out to be a great mood lifter for them both.

Also, Kie’s often-stated belief that “work is what keeps us alive” may ring hollow at first, but reflects her indomitable spirit. And that spirit, Kana realizes, has not died and deserves recognition.

The film’s parallels between Kana and Kie, such as their common fate of being forgotten after their usefulness expires (Kana by her clients, Kie by the world), feel labored. And its view of dementia may strike those who know its ravages as overly rosy.

But in the engaging performances of its two principals, “Wash Away” provides a model of caregiving to emulate — as well as providing vivifying examples of why a good wash is good for the soul.