Title: Perfect Days
Release Date: December 21, 2023
Director: Wim Wenders
Production Company: Master Mind Limited | Spoon Inc. | Wenders Images
Summary/Review:
“Shadows…Do they get darker when they overlap?”
Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) is an aging man who lives alone in a modest Tokyo apartment and spends his work days cleaning public toilets in the wealthier parts of the city. He’s very assiduous about his work and finds contentment in reading books, listening to classic rock on cassette tape, and photographing the sunshine through tree branches. Hirayama doesn’t talk much but he is well-received by the staff at the cafes where he dines regularly.
Perfect Days is a detailed examination of the life of an individual’s hidden work, not unlike Jeanne Dielman…, with Hirayama being something of a cypher like Chance in Being There, although neither of these films are perfect comparisons. There are story vignettes within the quotidian depiction of Hirayama’s life. The flaky junior employee of the toilet cleaning company Takashi (Tokio Emoto) needs help to impress his new girlfriend Aya (Aoi Yamada). Hirayama’s niece Niko (Arisa Nakano), visits after running away from home, and the two find that they have a lot in common. Later, Takashi quits his job suddenly and Hirayama refuses to take on his workload for more than one day. His final interaction is a beautiful shared moment with a stranger.
There’s a lot we never learn about Hirayama. Why is he alienated from his father and his sister? Why does he live and spend so much time alone? What makes him able to find such contentment in a life that appears outwardly dreary? We’ll never know, but we care about Hirayama due to the brilliant acting of Yakusho who can say everything with his eyes and a smile.
Rating: ****1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 