Cannes 2023: ‘Perfect Days’ in Tokyo are Simple Yet Still Enriching
by Alex Billington
May 29, 2023
Everyone knows that famous Lou Reed song that goes, “Oh it’s such a perfect day! I’m glad I spend it with you…” This timeless classic tune is where this film’s title Perfect Days is from, but it’s also an important part of the film – it’s one of songs that Hirayama listens to a few times while at home or driving around in his little van. Perfect Days is one of the latest narrative feature films created by iconic German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire), a passion project that he has been working on for years. It just premiered in the Main Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and the wonderful Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho won the Best Actor prize at the end of the festival. It’s without a doubt one of my favorite films from Cannes, and Yakusho absolutely deserves this award. The film reminds me in many ways of Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, one of my all-time fave Cannes premieres – both are poetic and quietly moving, while also being charismatic and nuanced in their deep understanding of the simpler lives of blue collar workers.
In this film, the main character literally has a blue collar – his work uniform is a blue jumpsuit that he wears all day long while cleaning toilets. Kōji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, who works as a humble cleaner for The Tokyo Toilet Project. While the film is fictional (with a script by Takuma Takasaki and Wim Wenders), these public Tokyo Toilets are entirely real. Hirayama lives a very simple life in a very basic one room apartment in Tokyo. He wakes up early every morning, puts on his uniform, drives around town and cleans up toilets, takes breaks and gets some food from small shops that know him well, then washes himself at a public bath before returning home to listen to music and/or read his books. This very basic routine is important to him, and it keeps him calm and collected. His encounters with strangers, regulars (including a homeless man), animals, trash, and more, are a part of the strange quirks of his job. He loves trees and carries a film camera with him, snapping shots when he’s on his breaks sitting in Tokyo’s lovely parks. One day his niece shows up at his home. The story follows Hirayama on a series of unexpected encounters that reveal more about him.
Perfect Days is another special gem of a film, and I’m glad that I took the time to sit with it and bask in its cheerful charm. I enjoyed it immensely, partially because I love Japan and I adore Tokyo, partially because it’s just a breath of fresh air with a story reminding us how to appreciate all the small things in life. Even if your job is to clean toilets, which is often considered one of the most disgusting jobs on this planet, you can still be a wholesome, lovely, humble person who appreciates beauty and nature and all the different sides of humanity. Anytime a random Japanese person comes running to the restroom while he’s still in the middle of cleaning, Hirayama patiently pauses and without saying a word lets them in to relieve themselves. He is such a pure and virtuous person, and there’s something empowering in watching his confident performance on screen. The film also features some of the best Tokyo cinematography since Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love (at Cannes 2012). Oldies played on cassette tapes make for the greatest soundtrack in any film at the fest. There isn’t a song I’d swap, or a scene I’d cut, it’s perfectly uplifting & rejuvenating from start to finish.
At its core, Perfect Days is a deeply moving Buddhist film. It’s actually showing us the life of someone who is as close to enlightenment as anyone by following the same path of the original Buddha, Siddhartha. He has given up everything to live this extremely simply life, and in doing so is enriching the souls and the lives of everyone else he encounters throughout his daily routine. As basic as his days may be, they’re still so rich in unique moments and he’s still empowered by the energy that fills all beings and all spaces on this planet. It’s a poetic film, but I also believe it’s a very spirtuual film, and I think at this point in his life Wim Wedners wants us to learn so much from Hirayama and how he lives. Instead of looking down on a toilet cleaner, we should be looking up to him and his life and how he brings so much light to this world. Even if he’s working through his own darkness, there’s still so much warmth radiating from within him. I want to hang out with him, listen to music, and roam around Tokyo with Hirayama – I think it would be a life-changing experience. Lucky that we have this film to enjoy anyway… We all need a few of these “perfect days” to feel energized by.
Alex’s Cannes 2023 Rating: 9 out of 10
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