PERFECT DAYS

Japan/Germany, 2023, 124 minutes, Colour.

Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto,

Directed by Wim Wenders.

A new dawn, a new day, a new life… For me… And I’m feeling good - the lyrics of the Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley song, repeated throughout the film, but heard at quite some length at the end, the audience focusing on the benign face of Hirayami (Koji Yakusho in a wonderful performance) as he drives his truck on his way through the streets of Tokyo.

Here is a film about the goodness of human nature, kindness, human dignity.

Writer-director, Wim Wenders, has been making significant films for 50 years. He has had a special interest in Japan, making a documentary some years ago on the classic Japanese director, Yasijuro Ozu, and is paying tribute to him with Perfect Days. We are in the world of ordinary Japanese life, day by day, the vivid background of modern-day Tokyo, streets, high-rise, parks, diners, simple apartments. And, to the surprise of many audiences, toilets. For audiences who clean/have cleaned toilets, there will be a great deal of empathy with Hirayami and his day job, doing the rounds of Tokyo toilets, meticulous cleaning (even holding a mirror under a basin to detect any dirt), thorough. And this occupies most of his day – and a great deal of the first third of the film. We do become familiar, with him, with those toilets.

And he is content. He is a somewhat reclusive loner. No intimations of back story till the last part of the film. And, with his routines, repeated each day of the week, waking, folding bed and blanket, cleaning his teeth, opening the door, smiling at the sky, coffee from the vending machine, his truck, cleaning equipment, and on his rounds. There are some slight variations on his day off, especially to do his laundry. He has a sandwich in the park for lunch. He loves photographing the sky, the trees and leaves, watching characters in the park. He has a regular meal at a diner, returns home, and is an avid reader, shelves of books in his spartanly comfortable apartment. And the question as to whether he is on the spectrum with his meticulous regularity and detail.

There are other characters, especially his young associate who measures every experience out of 10!, cleans while looking at his mobile phone, his courting a girlfriend, needs money, overtures to Hirayami to sell his valuable collection of audiocassettes from the 70s and 80s. And then he quits.

Suddenly,Hirayami has a niece, running away from her mother who is alienated from Hirayami. Nor does Hirayami want to visit his now senile father. But, possibilities, as his sister does give the gift of his favourite chocolate.

So, Wenders shows great empathy for his character, a gentle Everyman figure, rarely speaking, somewhat more towards the end of the film. We cannot but help liking and admire him. And, music throughout the film, Japanese songs, English-language songs, Lou Reed, The House of the Rising Sun (in Japanese as well).

Cleaning toilets, quiet encounters with people, kindness, a regular life, books and music, each day is routine but a new dawn, a new life…

1. The title and expectations? A Japanese story? German and Japanese perspectives on characters and stories? On the traditions of Japanese filmmaking?
2. The career of Wim Wenders, movies, documentaries, many decades, international, interest in Japan, the films of Yasijuro Ozu, this film paralleling his films, a tribute to him?
3. The importance of narrative? The important to focus on character? Action? Contemplation? Movies and experience?
4. The musical score, the range of songs, English lyrics, Japanese lyrics, Lou Reed and his Perfect Days lyrics, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, a new world…?
5. The presence and performance of Koji Yakusho? Age, appearance, serious, the smiles, reticent, speaking quietly under his breath, the later development and his communications? Audience interest, his being an enigma, audience appreciation of him? Goodness?
6. The discipline of his apartment, bed, blanket and pillow, waking, the routine, each day, the smile, the sky, cleaning his teeth, the coffee from the vendor, his truck, taking his uniform? Repeated throughout the film – with some variations on his day off? The routine of his reading at night, his well stocked shelves, reading Faulkner, the Japanese essayist, buying Patricia Highsmith? Visiting the store, one dollar for a book?
7. Audience response to his work as a toilet cleaner, the first half of the film and so much time spent in the toilets, Tokyo toilets and their being well appointed, his thoroughness, the detail, the mirror under the basin to detect dirt? Meticulous detail? The arrival of his co-worker, younger, casual, estimating everything out of 10, cleaning while looking at his mobile phone, music? Comparisons between the two?
8. The simple life, satisfied, the routines? Relating to people, kindness? Bowing to people, to the shrine, to nature?
9. The daily routine, the range of toilets, the customers, the children locked in, the little boy rescue, his mother not even saying thanks, the boy waving? Lunch, the trees and leaves, the sky? His always taking photos? The people encountered, the vagrant and his standing and movement, later seeing him in the street? The young girl sitting, eating the sandwich?
10. The cumulative effect of watching Hirayami day by day? Audience questions about his back story, the young worker asking the questions for us, no answers? Hirayami always obliging, the young man, his girlfriend, to give her the lift, in the truck, playing the cassettes, the girl listening, taking one, later returning at and listening to it in the truck, weeping? The young man, the cassettes, going to the shop, their values, especially from the 70s and 80s? The young man asking for money, Hirayami giving it to him?
11. Watching the behaviour of Hirayami, speculation about his past, his personality, his meticulous routines, the issue of his being on the spectrum? Sympathetically so?
12. The effect of watching the toilet sequences, audiences who clean toilets identifying, audiences who have not had the experience puzzling about watching such detail? Hirayami as a very ordinary Everyman character?
13. The other routines, the evening meal, the welcome from the staff, the drink, the food, the patrons watching the television, baseball? His continued returns? The older woman behind the counter, her welcoming him, the drinks, her singing at the House of the Rising In Japanese?
14. The sudden arrival of his niece, the audience surprised to find he had a niece, the alienation from his sister? Her making herself at home, wanting to join him in the work, her discovery, sitting for lunch, the photos, the trees and leaves? Borrowing books?
15. The significance of the photos, leaves and sunlight? The post-credits! And word for this kind of photography, interspersed throughout the film, dream sequences, at the end of each day, lines, shadows, black-and-white, some appearances of figures? Referred to as dream installations?
16. His niece, alienation from her mother, her arrival, chauffeured, wanting her daughter home, the gift of the chocolate, memories of their father, in the aged care, his not wanting to visit his father? His niece always welcome?
17. His associate phoning him, praising him, not turning up for work? The pressure on having to do the whole day shift by himself? Phone calls? Irritated? The next day, the woman arriving, rigid manner, the work?
18. The enigmatic episodes to the end, the locked door, the restaurant and watching, the man and the woman, cycling away, the man coming to meet him, his explanations, terminal cancer, the shadows, the game of tag? The man ex-husband? The woman and Hirayami?
19. Sharing the experience with him, an experience of human nature and goodness? The long focus on his smiling face of the end, driving his van, and the lyrics of a new dawn, a new day, a new world… For me, and I’m feeling good?