The Reel Review
Hirayama is a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He lives alone and spends his free time listening to cassette tapes of 1960s-era American music, reading used paperbacks, taking pictures and growing maple saplings from the tree-filled park near his modest home. Koji Yakusho stars in this portrait of a man living a simple, tranquil life.
No lie – the action in Perfect Days is monotonous (a LOT of toilet cleaning), peppered with occasional interactions with others. It isn’t until more than an hour in, that Hirayama speaks. Yakusho (Shall We Dance?, Memoirs of a Geisha) perfectly captures his character’s tranquil essence, finding the beauty in the mundane. Over time, we learn why Hirayama has chosen this life.
Perfect Days is not a movie for everyone – it requires a quiet environment with no distractions to pick up on an all the subtle but key nuances. For those with the patience, towards the end there will be an appreciation for this individual who has chosen to remove himself from stress, conflict and unhappiness – and just may have discovered the secret to a happy life in the process.
REEL FACTS
• Initially Oscar-nominated, German director/co-writer Wim Wenders (The Salt of the Earth, Buena Vista Social Club) was invited to make a documentary about Tokyo’s public toilets as part of a planned promotional campaign for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, but Wenders decided to make a feature film instead.
• The Perfect Days screenplay was written in three weeks and the film shot in only 17 days.
• Perfect Days was Japan’s 2024 Oscar nominee for Best International Film. Yakusho won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
Video & Photo
Sounds rather fascinating to me