Perfect Days
Wim Wenders celebrates the unspoken complexity of a quiet life
Koji Yakusho and Arisa Nakano find beauty in the world around them in Wim Wenders' Perfect Days.
When does solitude become loneliness? Is a life of quiet contemplation wasted or the purest way to experience the world?
For Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), routine is a form of meditation.
He wakes with the sound of street sweeping, meticulously folds and stores his bedding, goes about his ablutions, sprays his plants with water, grabs a drink from the vending machine, and heads to work listening to the best of 70s American Pop on his cassette player. Hirayama is a maintenance worker for Tokyo Toilet — a real company that is dedicated to placing beautiful public restrooms that enhance the aesthetics of the area throughout the Shibuya ward. But Hirayama doesn’t merely toss some bleach in the bowl and move on, he takes the maintenance of each bathroom seriously. He checks under the toilets with a little mirror for grime, he’s cobbled together specialized tools to help him clean more effectively, and he takes great pains to leave each stall and urinal gleaming before he moves on to the next. At lunch, he sits alone in a park and occasionally takes pictures of the trees. When he’s done, he visits the public baths, has a solitary meal in one of the local restaurants, and falls asleep reading.
It doesn’t sound exciting, but for Hirayama, it’s satisfying. He seems to derive a sense of purpose and peace from his daily routine. He barely speaks, and never initiates conversations, but has the pleasant, reflective countenance of a monk that seems to draw people in. When his perfect days are altered, Hirayama must reckon with the notion that there might be more to life than his rigidly peaceful existence.
Director Wim Wenders loves a good loner story. Films like Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire focus on outsiders and observers, those who don’t fit in society. Perfect Days continues Wenders fascination with those who choose, or are forced, to live on the edges. It’s a quiet film, but the silences feel profound. It evokes the filmmaking of Japanese legend Yasujirō Ozu, with long wide shots offering the audience a chance for contemplation between scenes.
And while Wenders carefully catalogs every moment of Hirayama’s day, there is still a sterile nature to Perfect Days. The public toilets Hirayama cleans are at worst littered with scraps of paper. There are no signs of human…expulsion evident on the gleaming surfaces as he wipes them down. The man would faint dead away if he saw the state of the Penn Station bathrooms. It feels as though Wenders is omitting the filth not because he doesn’t have the stomach for it, but because it is a metaphor for Hirayama’s life. Like the Lou Reed song that gives the film its name, “Perfect Day” involves a feeling of connection to keep you hanging on. Wenders, it seems, wants you to decide if it is possible to thrive without connection. Hirayama is a man who lives the life of a monk. He can be playful and kind, but he has largely chosen an existence devoid of human interaction, sexuality, and all the other little foibles of humanity. When people speak to him with genuine emotions, Hirayama is lost. He can eventually make a connection, but it’s very clear that he has stepped away from the human experience as an act of self-preservation.
Keeping Hirayama from feeling too robotic is a brilliantly subtle performance from Yakusho. There is so much happening behind Yakusho’s eyes as he allows Hirayama to drink in the world — joy at the simple beauty of nature, relaxation in the public baths, shy kindness when asked for help — it’s a masterclass of acting for a camera. There are no big moments in Yakusho’s performance, and it’s all the more impressive for it. Even when hints of dramatic events in Hirayama’s life are brought up, the film leaves the audience to draw its own conclusions. This is a man who exists on the interior, and without the help of Wender’s keen eye and camera, it would be easy to miss just how extraordinary this life is.
Perfect Days, while beautifully rendered, might not be a perfect film for everyone. It’s a movie that will hit hardest if you go into it with a reflective mind. Wenders wants you to quietly contemplate, not devour plot, so if you go in hoping for a car chase or some grand drama, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you’re at a crossroads, or need a reminder that even quiet moments in uneventful lives are worthy and beautiful, Perfect Days is a revelation.
Verdict: A character study with gorgeous acting, Wenders’ love for the lonely is at its best in this film.
Perfect Days is rated PG and is available in theaters February 9.
