Perfect Days is a film about the beautiful everyday, captured precisely and artfully by veteran director Wim Wenders.
Kōji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, a middle-aged janitor in Tokyo. He lives in a tiny apartment furnished with little other than his bed, some plants, and rows of books and cassette tapes of 70s and 80s rock. Every morning, he wakes up, brushes his teeth in the kitchen sink, mists his plants, and leaves for work. He buys a can of coffee from a vending machine outside his apartment and drives to his first cleaning job – to his music selection of the day.
Hirayama takes pride in his work. Cleaning toilets is, by any measure of constructed social status, a lowly profession, but Hirayama attends to his daily routine with diligence, pride, and humbleness. He eats a simple lunch in the park daily and appreciates nature, taking a photograph of the trees with his film camera. He finishes his day at a local eatery, where he is known and liked, and retires to bed, dreaming in black and white collage.
The narrative of the film is as steady as the routine of its protagonist. Hirayama’s life is self-curated to be as gentle as he desires. Other characters are few and far between, and they tend not to impact Hirayama’s life in any significant way. He is a man of few words, and doesn’t adhere to what might be termed normal social expectations of conversation or engagement. He doesn’t foster conflict, retaining sereneness where he has control. He doesn’t appear to be lonely, save for some subtle scenes of curiosity and connection toward others.
Perfect Days is a study of what it means to be granted life and it is, in essence, an observation of an outsider to civilisation’s expectations and constructs. It’s a character study of a life lived on its own terms, one’s own definition of meaning, and society’s response to the same.
2023, Wim Wenders
8.5
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