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Wim Wenders (director), Perfect Days, 2023. 123 min.
Perfect Days (2023) is a drama directed by Wim Wenders, from a script written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki. It is a co-production between Japan and Germany, staring Kōji Yakusho, who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance.
The film is an excellent example of “slow cinema” that the Japanese do better than anyone else. The drama is life simply as it is lived. An ode to the everyday, we follow the dignified and unassuming Mr Hirayama day after day as he goes about his work cleaning the architectural wonders that serve as toilets in Tokyo’s parks.
His pride in his work is apparent by its thoroughness and precision, and the way he treats the people he comes across, and the little unexpected interactions in his workday like the game of tic-tac-toe with a stranger after finding a piece of paper left hidden in a toilet stall, a game that continues over the course of the film. He has a sandwich every day in the shade under trees in the grounds of a shrine and takes photographs of their branches and leaves. He exchanges furtive glances with a woman eating lunch one bench over.
Hirayama’s day starts at dawn. He dedicates his free time to his passion for music, which he listens on cassette tapes in his dilapidated van to and from work, and to his books, which he reads every night before going to sleep. He also eats at the same ramen stall every day. His dreams are shown in flickery impressionistic sequences at the end of each day.
One of the film’s strengths lies in its ability to convey so much with very little dialogue. Kōji Yakusho’s “eye acting” say it all. The film relies on subtle gestures, the rhythm of daily routines, and the power of observation and repetition to communicate its message. Since there is little obvious character exposition, we are encouraged to draw our own conclusions about Hirayama’s past. Various encounters in the film hint that he perhaps has escaped past trauma and retreated to an existence that has its own joys in its simplicity and sameness. We are curious to find out more about him, but deep down we know that explicit reveals would spoil the film. It is better not to know everything. Imagination works for us.
The music (largely iconic 1960s and 1970s songs) that Hirayama listens to is a major motif in the film. Wenders has said of Hirayama’s choice of music: “Maybe he’s clinging to the past. But he’s clinging a little bit also to his youth and he loves that music. He chooses in the morning exactly what he’s going to listen to that day. And it’s not random”.
The film shows us the beauty of simplicity and the profound impact of certain moments. The satisfaction in one’s own company. A reminder that even in the most ordinary lives, there can be wonder and new discoveries. Hirayama’s love of nature, his love for literature, and his love of music are his trusted companions, infusing his life with a unique sense of fulfilment. Doing one’s job well, even a menial one is also a cause of satisfaction.
For me, the most moving part of the film was the very last scene as Hirayama drives his van, his eyes directly looking at us, reflecting, it seems to me, the perfectness that one can find in the inevitable imperfection of life as he listens to a certain song being played…
How to cite: Eagleton, Jennifer. “An Excellent Example of Slow Cinema: Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 27 Jan. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/03/26/wenders-perfect-days.
Jennifer Eagleton, a Hong Kong resident since October 1997, is a close observer of Hong Kong society and politics. Jennifer has written for Hong Kong Free Press, Mekong Review, and Education about Asia. Her first book is Discursive Change in Hong Kong (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) and she is currently writing another book on Hong Kong political discourse for Palgrave MacMillan. Her poetry has appeared in Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, People, Pandemic & ####### (Verve Poetry Press, 2020), and Making Space: A Collection of Writing and Art (Cart Noodles Press, 2023). A past president of the Hong Kong Women in Publishing Society, Jennifer teaches and researches part-time at a number of universities in Hong Kong. [All contributions by Jennifer Eagleton.]