Perfect Days

An emotionally insightful wonder, Perfect Days is about the toilet cleaner Hiroyama and his simple life. Kôji Yakoshi, a national movie star in Japan, was awarded best actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role as Hiroyama.

The Japanese concept of «Ikigai» is described as a «motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason to live.» The middle-aged man Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho) leads a simple, frugal, and routine life. His small apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo is as organized and efficient as his calendar and daily tasks. Every day begins with the same morning routines before he buys a coffee from the same vending machine and drives his small car from public restroom to public restroom. He takes pride and perfection in his work as a toilet cleaner. In his car, he has a collection of cassettes with American and British pop music that has probably remained the same for a couple of decades. (He likely listens to selected cassettes on specific days.) Hirayama seems to find meaning and peace in perfecting his simple life in every aspect, both privately and in his work. Ikigai.

Wim Wenders' Perfect Days may initially come across as a proper «old man's film,» but with every passing minute, it is precisely in the film's calmness, patience, and wisdom of life that its qualities unfold. Most of us could benefit from sitting in the passenger seat with Hirayama, observing how he values the small things in life. From enjoying an unspectacular store-bought sandwich to the pride he takes in his work, to the joy of seeing the light hit the leaves on the trees in the park.

Clearly inspired by the Japanese master director Yasujirō Ozu, Wenders moves forward in the narrative with a calmness and thoughtfulness I cannot recall seeing since the last time I watched an Ozu film. There is something soothing, inspiring, and good about Perfect Days, and with everything happening in the world recently, perhaps this understated, meditative, and unusual feel-good film is exactly what we need to see right now.

Truls Foss

Director

Wim Wenders (b. 1945) is a German film director who, along with Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, is considered a key figure of the German New Wave in the 1970s. He made his first feature film in 1972, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, and has since made several critically acclaimed fiction and documentary films, including The American Friend (1977), Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987), and later documentary works such as Pina (2011) and The Salt of the Earth (2014).

This film is part of