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As a landlord, there are many rules and regulations that need to be adhered to. As indicated by a suitably seedy Tomorowo Taguchi in “Room Laundering’s” carnivalesque opening scene, Japanese law requires that landlords reveal that if a previous tenant died in a property, any prospective renters must be informed as such. But, with the help of a troubled young woman, uncaring landlords can find a way round this.

Room Laundering is screening at Camera Japan

Miko (Elaiza Ikeda) saw her father die at a young age and then her mother disappear soon after. Raised by her grandmother, it wasn’t long before her only living relative was her uncle Goro (Joe Odagiri), a low-level dealer in all things of the illegal variety. With no home, Goro sends Miko to live in any apartment of the recently deceased, making the current tenant alive and well, so Goro’s clients...

You have probably heard about money laundering. But what about Room Laundering? Director and writer Kenji Katagiri wants to tell you more about that in his same-titled debut film.

“Room Laundering” is part of the Asian selection at Fantasia International Film Festival

Room Laundering means to restore the reputation of an apartment. Why was the Reputation damaged? Because someone got killed or killed himself there. The Japanese law demands the landlord to inform the new tenant about the previous happenings, which will make it very hard to sell the apartment. There is a loophole, though. This information obligation lasts until the first new tenant after the incident, moves in.

And this is where the story kicks in. Miko, played by Elaiza Ikeda (“The Many Faces of Ito” 2017), is a young woman, who works as a placeholder. Whenever there is a murder room or a suicide apartment, her phone rings and she has to move in,...

According to Kenji Katagiri’s debut feature Room Laundering — and I have no reason to disbelieve him — Japan has a law stating that landlords must divulge whether a previous tenant died or suffered a violent crime within any newly vacated property to all prospective replacements. But while this rule makes sense considering people are sensitive to the notion of supernatural hauntings and evil spirits, lawmakers never stipulated how long before that history can be “cleaned” off the books. No one setting the duration at “x-amount of years” is an obvious oversight, but that lack of concrete interpretation allows owners to simply agree to a loose understanding hinged upon the basis of the tenants themselves. If someone moves in and leaves afterwards, whomever follows won’t technically have to know.

It’s a wild loophole that makes for a captivating premise to set a sweetly funny and surreal coming-of-age tale centered upon a twenty-year old,...