Wim Wenders takes a lifetime of wisdom and distils it into a meditative and beautiful tale brimming with poetry.
ADVERTISEMENTOver the last decade, German veteran filmmaker Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Buena Vista Social Club) has had a somewhat erratic output, with his last great film being the 2011 documentary Pina. Now, he’s delivered one of his best narrative features in years, a quietly captivating gem about cherishing fleeting moments and embracing random connections.
Perfect Days follows Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), an aging and diligent toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He is a quiet, solitary man who finds joy in life’s simple pleasures: waking up before sunrise, watering his plants, reading before bedtime. When he’s not applying himself conscientiously to his profession and putting up with the motormouthed antics of his much younger colleague Takashi (Tokio Emoto), he’s armed with his old Olympia camera and taking shots of nature or adding another cassette tape to his music collection.
The rhythm of his day-to-day routine is interrupted when his teenage niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) shows up to his tiny apartment for an unannounced visit. She’s run away from her mother, Hirayama’s estranged and wealthy sister.
Perfect Days began life as a project commissioned by Japanese urban authorities, to celebrate Tokyo's state-of-the-art public toilet system. Wenders does offer the Western viewer the opportunity to be astonished by the variety and designs of the Japanese facilities, but has strayed from the brief. In doing so, he’s created an observational character study that’s shot with a documentarian’s eye by Franz Lusting.
Central to the potency of this deeply empathetic film is Yakusho’s performance. Armed with only a handful lines, he manages to gracefully convey a wealth of emotions (and sometimes turmoil) behind an impassive façade. He breaks your heart and puts it back together again with a delicate potency, and to say that his win at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Best Actor was merited is putting it mildly.
As if Yakusho’s turn wasn’t enough to get you booking a ticket, the whole beguiling affair is soundtracked to the sounds of Patti Smith, Nina Simone, and – predictably considering the title - Lou Reed.
Granted, mileage will vary regarding the melancholic poetry that decries from Perfect Days. Some may find aspects verging on corny, and others will legitimately denote a mildly judgemental tone with regards to the generational clash in the second half. It never sneers, though. However, if you surrender to Wenders taking a lifetime of wisdom and distilling it into a meditative tale, centred on the concept of ‘Komorebi’ (literally “sunlight leaking through trees”), you’ll be filled with renewed faith in the common good.
In the end, finding the lyrical in the quotidian need not be so demanding. Sometimes it’s just about allowing yourself to be hopeful, taking the time to stop and stare, and thwacking on some Nina Simone. Perfection.
Perfect Days is out now in European cinemas. Make sure to check out our interview with Wim Wenders.
