Perfect Days
Director: Wim Wenders
22 June 2023
See
Him: Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) is a janitor in Tokyo were he cleans public toilets. Outside and around that he is a man of ritual and routine through which he finds joy.
Her: Perfect Days is the latest film by German director Wim Wenders. In his recognisable manner, for his new film Wenders picked a very ordinary subject – a man that lives in modern Tokyo and works as a public toilet cleaner.
Think
Him: The way he wakes up and folds his bed, waters his bonsai plants, washes up and set out his picket contents is fastidious and relaxing. And we haven’t even left his town house. The cassettes he listens to driving to and inbetween work. The personalised tools he uses to clean toilets. His etiquette, with patrons and politeness to strangers. Even consideration to his junior at work (Tokio Emoto) or caring for his niece. And then there is the reading and photography which he does each day and sorts and stores meticulously on his shelves and in boxes.
Her: Wenders is a poet of the ordinary. He sees beauty where most people don’t. Kind of similar to Jim Marmusch, yet in his own style. This film, just like most of his previous works is slow and at first it may seem like nothing is happening. But when it’s finished, you all of a sudden realise that all of the scenes and characters were there for a reason. In a world where mass culture is fixed on super heroes and extraordinary events, following a simple life of a Tokyo Toilet Company worker – is like a breath of fresh air to me.
Feel
Him: A life so compartmentalised seemed to be relaxing in it’s regularity. I wasn’t so interested in why he came to this end, but in his ability to maintain his equilibrium. It reminded me of Jim Jarmusch’s Patterson. This was just as poetically simple.
Her: The idea that happiness can be found on the bottom of social hierarchy is not new but rare. It makes me feel I should reconsider some of my priorities but also reminds me of and reassures some of the other sidom I hare with Hirayama.
