THE FILM
TITLE: Perfect Days
RELEASE DATE: 25 May 2023
WATCH DATE: 07 Mar 2024
TYPE: live-action feature film (Japanese)
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THE PEOPLE
DIRECTOR: Wim Wenders
PRODUCER: Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki, Keiko Tominaga, Reiko Kunieda, Koji Yanai, Yasushi Okuwa, Kota Yabana
WRITER: Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki
ACTORS: Koji Yakusho, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Tokio Emoto
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THE STORY
RUNTIME: 2h 4m
STORYLINE: a man works as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo with an established rhythm of daily life, and some minor events occur to mix things up but he remains dedicated to his routine
GENRE/THEMES: drama, comedy, day-in-the-life, minimalism
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THE CRITIQUE
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Perfect Days is what everyone needs. The majority of film lets us escape, transported to other worlds, seeing things we’ve never seen before. But this… this is everyday life. The mundane. The simple. The routine. Wenders puts the mundane, the routine, the simple on the screen. And it’s unexpectedly wonderful. Hirayama’s (Koji Yakusho) routine is only broken up by more normal events of daily life - a conversation from a coworker, a surprise visit from his niece, a game of shadow tag with a new acquaintance. Everyone needs to know that the cadence of daily life is good. You don’t always have to be on an adventure, fighting the bad guys, solving a problem, or being a hero. Simple is okay.
There is essentially no score at all. On one hand fits the minimalism of the film, but also is perhaps a missed opportunity to have incredible music scoring the daily routine of this simple Japanese man. The film remains strong even without a score though, an emphasis that daily life doesn’t have a score.
Franz Lustig must have had a blast on the cinematography for Perfect Days. Hirayama is a hobbyist photographer and carries around a film camera on his job. On lunch break, he sits on a bench… and looks up at the trees. Swaying branches… lighting, filtering through the leaves. Enjoying the simplest of things. One of the opening shots lingers on such a moment, establishing that motif for the rest of the film. When he takes the shot, the screen freezes and goes black and white - the photo he just took. I wanted a thousand more of those moments. The black and white photography motif is also carried into Hirayama’s dreams. Every night after his evening routine, he sleeps, and dreams… in black and white, just like his photographs. These sequences are a montage of textures and shapes, different each time. My favorite element of Perfect Days.
The other theme carried through the film is the 60s and 70s music that Hirayama plays from cassette tapes in his van. Every morning. And right at the halfway point in the film, he plays “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed. Honestly, I was prepared for the film to end right there! Having just embraced the mundane of daily life for the first hour, I was content. The second hour of the film gets a bit deeper into his character - a bit of family drama, some new places he visits, and he begins to open up emotionally.
The film ought to have ended about 1m 30s earlier than it did. That would have been a far stronger finish. Yakusho’s final scene is an extended shot of him driving while “I’m Feeling Good” plays from a cassette. The dawn sunlight shines through the window as the emotions on his face sway from the verge of tears to laughter. Daily emotions, that everyone can relate to. A sensational film.
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THE RECEPTION
NOMINATIONS
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THE IMPRESSION
IN A SINGLE WORD: minimalist
MOST STRIKING ELEMENT: cinematography of the black & white dream sequences
REWATCH: no
RATING: 3.5 // 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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