The Wash (1985 film)

The Wash is a 1988 Japanese film by Philip Kan Gotanda, based on his 1985 play of the same name. It tells the story of a newly separated nisei couple, husband Nobu and wife Masi, and their individual and collective struggles with their past, which along with their marriage centered on Japanese tradition, despite their residing in the United States.

After what is implied to be many stressful years of mistreatment, Masi leaves Nobu early in the story due to his intolerably sexist nature, and is able to move on and begins dating the widower Sadao. Nobu does not similarly move on, and begins to panic at the loss of Masi. As a result of this "abandonment", as Nobu tends to classify it, Nobu is forced to confront both his traumatic memories of the Japanese internment camps, which the story establishes as the root of his inflexible nature, and the reality of the consequences this inflexibility has finally produced for him. The story does not end with any reunion between Masi and Nobu; Masi not only stays with Sadao, but also, symbolically, in the final scene, refuses to any longer do Nobu's clothes wash for him, as she had during all the years of their marriage. It is, of course, this aspect of the plot from which the story's name is obtained.

The Wash was first performed as a play in 1985; Gotanda then wrote the screenplay for the 1988 independent film version.[1][2][3]

References

  1. ↑ University of California at Santa Barbara assessment of Philip Kan Gotanda’s 'The Wash'
  2. ↑ New York Times 1988 Film Review of 'The Wash'
  3. ↑ YouTube clip from Philip Kan Gotanda's 'The Wash'


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