Perfect Days [2023] – ★★★1/2

I am continuing my coverage of this year’s Academy Award-nominees in category “Best International Feature Film” with this film by Wim Wenders, which follows the daily life of a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) is middle-aged, single and works hard and diligently at a number of different toilet facilities around Tokyo. However, he still tries to live his life fully, has many hobbies, from music and reading to photography and plants, and takes delight in what every day throws at him. Essentially, there is nothing more to this story than that, but Wenders’s lens still arouses much curiosity with each scene and Kōji Yakusho‘s portrayal of one idiosyncratic man is staggeringly real and heart-warming.

“You are not your job. There is much more to every person that simply their job tag or uniform”, the film seems to say. It is very right. However, firstly, to put things in the perspective, public toilets in Japan are considered to be one of the best and cleanest in the world,  and there is no such thing as “too small a job” according to Japanese mentality. Thus, Hirayama’s “work situation” may not be as “shocking” or even “degrading” in Japan as it may appear in the west, especially since the Japanese generally also consider making the world cleaner and better almost a holy pursuit.

Secondly, Japan is synonymous with enjoying small things in life, and being grateful for them, and there are probably a million Japanese books written already on the topic of lonely individuals trying to fit into this society that somehow looks down on them (from Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human to Durian Sukegawa‘s Sweet Bean Paste and Sayaka Murata‘s Convenience Store Woman). In that vein, Wim Wenders does not break any new grounds or introduces anything new, and the film does soon get rather repetitive as Hirayama stops at his usual cafes after work, frequents the same public bath-house and visits the same quirky bookshop.

Kōji Yakusho (The Third Murder) as Hirayama brings much to this film’s quiet conviction as his Hirayama exudes much warmth and gratefulness for each passing moment. He is like a gentle hermit in a macrocosm of humanity, functioning as an observer, rather than an active participator when it comes to close human relationships. But, he does love people. His character helps a younger colleague with money worries and he bonds well for a time with his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano). His connection with the human world is cursory, but illuminating, such as when he plays the game of tic-tac-toe with a stranger through a hidden piece of paper in a toilet. And, it is thanks to Kōji Yakusho that we immerse ourselves so fully into Hirayama’s worldview. As his character drives and smiles to his favourite “throw-back” music of the 1970/80s, we also realise that being a toilet cleaner is far from being the end of the world, especially if you appear to live relatively comfortably at the heart of one of the most exciting cities on this planet – Tokyo.

Perfect Days is one of those “low-key”, almost plotless films that tries to make a point and showcase a way of life, rather than tell a story. Hirayama and Tokyo are two memorable characters in this “good vibes” film that is also just a tad emotionally manipulative and self-indulgent.