The most recent movie of German filmmaker Wim Wenders is Perfect Days. It is an art film much in the style of mid-20th century art films. The accent is on mood, and, in this case, a reflection on a single fictional life. Perfect Days has been garnering positive responses and awards globally at festivals and in commercial distribution. Earlier this year, it became available in the United States where it is streaming on several platforms. The Criterion Collection is releasing 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD versions in mid-July.
The main character is Hirayama, a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He lives a simple lifestyle. He rises early, drinks a coffee, drives a van to begin his job in an upscale neighborhood. At lunchtime, he sits in a nearby park and takes a nature photo of the sky through waving tree leaves as he eats his sandwich. After work, He interacts with a few pleasant people, then sleeps and dreams. The dreams are conceived of black-and-white images that produce an abstract impression.
The passion in Hirayama’s life comes from more than a sparkling toilet. He loves 60s and 70s American and British pop music and has an impressive collection of cassette tapes. Not CDs. Not a subscription to Spotify. Cassette tapes! He reads books by Faulkner, Highsmith and Aya Koda.
Is Wenders saying that the simple lifestyle is the preferred lifestyle? Many viewers have come away with that message, and, having read an interview with Wenders, it is a valid reading of the film. I have always believed that a filmmaker can have their reading of a movie, but it is perfectly all right for a viewer to have another interpretation.
I would rather avoid any sort of message about how to live. So I read this film differently. There is a moment in Perfect Days when it is said that “the world is made up of many worlds. Some are connected; some are not.” I think that is the crux of the film. Each of us lives in a world that is unique. Wenders and his co-writer Takuma Takasaki may or may not be saying that Hirayama’s world is the right way to live. I, with the power of the viewer, prefer thinking that Perfect Days simply is a contemplation of a world I have not known.
The original title of this film is Komorebi, a term that refers to shimmering light and shadows which exist only in the moment. That describes the nature photos that Hiroyama takes with his analog camera. I am thinking that this term might also describe the passing perfect days of this sweet man’s life. Add to those theories an odd, a spectral figure of a white-haired man who occasionally reveals himself to Hirayama. Who is this man?
This may be a film about a toilet cleaner who leads a simple life, but it is not entirely a simple film for audiences to navigate.
Perfect Days would not be the artful work that it is without the acting ability of Koji Yakusho. He’s a star in Japan and has won international praise over the years. As the focal point of the film, Yakusho’s facial expressions and movements help to create the tranquil atmosphere. One of Yakusho’s films, Shall We Dance (1996)—not the Richard Gere feature with that title, brought him to the attention of an international audience. It’s on my “Must See” list.
Winner of many motion picture awards, Wim Wenders has been a prolific filmmaker since his participation in the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s. Among his most acclaimed works are Alice in the Cities (1974), The American Friend (1977), and his two most admired films, Paris, Texas (1984) and my own favorite, Wings of Desire (1987).
Perfect Days became the first film directed by a non-Japanese filmmaker to represent Japan in the 96th Oscars competition.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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