Princess Kinoc reviews Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’, under the Screen International section of QCinema 2023. Some spoilers may be present in this review.
I have an immense bias towards films that are quiet and would rather show than tell. Wim Wenders is no stranger to depicting how observational we can all be towards other people’s lives which in turn may reflect into our own view of ourselves and the choices we choose to make our lives more meaningful.
I cannot claim to be an expert on Wim Wenders’ filmography but I was immediately drawn to watch this film first amongst the rest of the programming in this year’s QCinema Film Festival because I was a huge fan of his two films — it was City of Angels (yeah that one) that led me to watch the original, Wings of Desire — his film that starred the great Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin. That film explored the pleasures and disadvantages of the human experience; and of course, Paris, Texas which explored themes of loneliness and how people are not as receptive to any form of change, despite it being the only constant thing in one’s life.
Similar themes are present in the premise of Perfect Days, where we see Koji Yakusho as Hirayama, a toilet cleaner who lives his life in seclusion. His preferred conversations often happen in his head, in the form of taking pictures of trees in black and white, and in the books he reads. He lives quite a routinary life: he gets up and neatly prepares for the day, gets coffee in the vending machine outside his small but sufficient home, and drives himself to work in his “kei car”, a small boxy type of car that is often the preferred mode of transportation by most Japanese for its accessibility and affordability. Inside his car are his tools for cleaning, complete with mops, cleaning agents, tissue papers for replacing the ones in the public toilets, and his perfectly cool collection of music — from Otis Redding to Lou Reed, who’s song Perfect Day the film aptly borrows its title. The lyric of that song seems to resonate with Hirayama as well.
His life seems to be quite perfect indeed: there’s no room for any complications, and he seems to be quite comfortable with the fact that what little income he could get from his work is enough for him to keep living his days without any other form of responsibility but for himself. He has dedicated much of his life in pursuit of his passions towards books, harvesting indigenous herbs and potential bonsai, and to collecting cassette tapes of his favorite music. The film gently documents his simple life one by one until it also slowly unfolds his reasons on what previous life he’s turned his back on.
For most of us who live on the kind of life that’s seemingly in a rush to achieve anything: from earning a degree, getting married, having kids, a successful career, blah blah blah, we cannot seem to mirror the same level of satisfaction that Hirayama seems to have. I am honestly quite envious of it at times, and perhaps that is a unique reaction that Wenders might not expect to have from his audience. Or maybe he has, who knows. Please let him know. I do feel like I am not alone in this observation.
Soon, we see a few characters popping in and out of his life, often adding a bit of imagery to his dreams as if showing us a different season in his life and how they seem to mean to him. Like I said, he isn’t the chatty type and most of the conversations he has are with himself, inside his thoughts. This is where Yakusho’s patience and understanding of the character fairs well. It faired him so well so much to deserve the Best Actor award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
What makes this film so remarkable, aside from the way it handled themes of solace and peace, is the way it also depicts how people treat custodians or toilet cleaners like Hirayama. Despite this being a very professional and voluntary kind of work, most of the people he encounters do not even seem to appreciate how important his work is. The film can remind us that they are just as important as any other profession available, and that perhaps the difference in societal classes has taught us that this is a dead end job, whereas in Hirayama’s case, it’s his perfect little way of disappearing from any shame his past has brought him.
His close relatives have contrasting ways on how they treat him upon learning of his work, first with his beloved niece Niko played by Arisa Nakano, who treats him well and respects the way that he lives his life and his chosen profession. They offer tender moments in the film that rarely allows us to hear Hirayama’s voice and a different side to him. The second is his sister, who tears up upon learning of where he now lives and what he has preferred to do with his life. It seems obvious that the two, despite being related to each other, have a different view of how the world works. Interestingly, the film can elicit that from the audience too. Some might find it dull, the way we are given nearly two hours just to watch someone clean toilets, but that’s what’s interesting about it. The challenge is how do we watch someone who prefers to be unseen?
Franz Lustig’s (who also worked with Wenders in Anselm) cinematography seems fitting in the Academy ratio, his shots at times are very scenic which captures the calm nature of his subject and how he views the world acceptingly. The boxed frame seems fitting too in how little we know of Hirayama’s past, and how there are a few elements here and there seem to describe him, but nothing else to inhibit any dangers of sort. Just complete calmness, nothing else out of the ordinary even in the presence of a few characters like his colleague, Takashi (Tokio Emoto) who embodies the curious mood of the youth, and Aya (Aoi Yamada) his friend who is also sort of an old soul who finds Hirayama interesting due to his taste of music. She often even perceives him to bear wisdom she might need in her life, but he only shrugs it off like his ways of chasing with life is a thing of the past.
In what feels like a performance of a lifetime for Koji Yakusho, is also something that can be considered as an important work of his lifetime for Wim Wenders. Perfect Days is a tender, gripping character study that offers an insightful look at the way we choose to live our lives, no matter how perfect or imperfect it is. It is a beautiful film that rather allows us to interpret every moment, and that ending is just the perfect close to what a rather perfect day should be. Doubts and all to what the future beholds.
Oh, it’s such a perfect day
I’m glad I spent it with you
Oh, it’s such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on
Perfect Days was part of the QCinema International Film Festival 2023 Screen International section. It is to be distributed worldwide by NEON.
Reviews from other members:
From John Tawasil
Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) cleans toilets for a living. It’s not exactly one of the most glamorous jobs out there, as an early interaction with a woman and her child makes it clear. But without fail, he gets up to the sound of a streetsweeper in the morning, goes through the motions of his work, and reads a few pages from a collection of books in the evening. It’s a simple life and honest work, and Hirayama likes it that way.
There’s something I wrote earlier this year for another (similarly themed) film that I wish to replicate here, because it captures my feelings about Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days… perfectly:
There is something incredibly comforting about routine: something safe in ordinariness, in the idea that no matter how drastically our lives may change, we return to familiar motions. It is also through routine and ritual that we observe the ephemera of living (in Japanese – mono no aware), of the impermanence of all things. Routine, thus, is a quiet act of rebellion then, a way of fighting back the chaos of life.
Through (comforting) repetition Wenders shows us the life of a man who has learned not to wander through the chaos of life, but to stand still and behold it – to see wonder in mundane things we’d usually otherwise ignore. With his rickety camera he takes a picture of the same tree almost every day, with the sun filtering through the clouds, with no other purpose than to admire its beauty. Instead of reacting to life, he merely observes and lets things pass him by.
At many points, however, Hirayama comes across several challenges to his chosen way of life. He gets a glimpse of sharing his life with a companion, or a loved one – or at least someone who shares his own desires or tends to his wants and needs. Later on, someone from his past visits him, showing him of the life he once lived, and the life he could have lived. At certain parts of the film, he catches sight of the same vagrant – someone who perhaps represents the purest form of his way of life, or an inevitable conclusion to a man who has lived invisibly, alone. And finally, he confronts his own mortality, and the notion that at the end of this journey, he will have lived his life with many things undone, with many things unknown.
But Hirayama’s response to that succinctly encapsulates his life view: next time is next time. Now is now. If there’s something that needs to be known, find out. If there’s something that needs to be done, do it. Though it is a film about a man who stands still, it’s definitely not about a man who has stopped dreaming. There’s something beautiful in that, I think.
(this review first appeared here)
From Jim Paranal
Namumuhay si Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) sa paglilinis ng mga pampublikong toilet ng Tokyo. Kapag wala siya sa trabaho, tahimik niyang ginugugol ang kanyang mga araw, nagbabasa ng mga libro, nakikinig ng musika, at kumukuha ng mga larawan ng mga puno. Sa paglipas ng panahon, isang serye ng mga hindi pangkaraniwang pagtatagpo ang nagpapakita ng kanyang nakaraan. Inilalagay ni Wenders si Yakusho, isa sa pinakamahuhusay na aktor ng Japan, sa isang character study na unti-unting nagpapakita ng matinding epekto sa isang tao na nakatagpo ng kagalakan sa ordinaryong bagay.
Nakahanap na po pala ako ng bagong personality sa katauhan ni Hirayama (played by Koji Yakusho). Charot!
Sa unang bahagi ng pelikula eh hindi ko talaga mapigilang mapapapikit ng mata
sa mala-Jeanne Dielman routine at mundanity.
May narinig din po akong ilang paghilik.
Okay lang ‘yun ganyan talaga ‘pag film festival.
Napakahusay ni Koji Yakusho sa pelikulang ito. To sum up ang napakagaling na performance niya bilang Hirayama eh naalala ko ang speech ni Diana Zubiri nung manalong Best Performer, “Na-shock po ako nung talagang ako ‘yung nanalo kasi nakita niyo naman po dun sa pelikula wala po akong ginawa kundi maglakad ng maglakad.
Parang ‘di po ba nakakapagod din naman ‘yung maglakad ng maglakad. Nakalimutan din po ata nila hindi lang po facial expressions ang ginagamit ‘di ba, pati po ‘yung body language.”
Sino ba naman ang hindi mananalo ng Cannes Film Festival Best Actor eh walang arte din si Koji sa pagpulot ng mga basura na walang gamit na gloves.
Sa pangalawa at pangatlong bahagi ng pelikula,
dito ko mas naramdaman ang pag-iisa at kalungkutan ni Hirayama.
Nung tinanong siya kung hindi ba siya nalulungkot sa pag-iisa.
Sa pagtatanong ng kapatid niya na may halong concern
kung totoo nga bang toilet cleaner ang trabaho niya.
Sa pag-enjoy sa pakikinig ng lumang tugtugin, pagkuha ng litrato
at pagpapa-develop ng mga ito, pagpunta sa nakagawiang bookstore
at magbasa ng libro pati ang madalas na pagpunta sa mga suking kainan.
Pinakita din sa pelikula na people just come and go.
Kaya kita mo ‘yung limited interaction niya.
Saka akala ko sina Richard Gomez at Regine Velasquez lang ang magpapalitan ng mga liham sa bench sa “Ikaw lamang hanggang ngayon” aba lumaban din ang lolo Koji sa palitan ng larong dinaan sa liham na sinuksok sa gilid ng banyo habang naglilinis ng toilet.
Si Hirayama eh kung dito sa Pilipinas ‘yan nakatira eh baka may kumuha ng litrato niya habang kumakain mag-isa at mag-viral pa online.
‘Yung last shot ng pelikula kung saan nagpakita ng iba’t ibang facial expressions
at emotions si Koji Yakusho habang nagmamaneho at tumutugtog ang “Feeling Good”
ay isa sa best scenes of this year.
Evident din ang trademark style of filmmaking ni Wim Wenders
na makikita dito sa pelikula tulad na lamang sa dream sequences
na may pagka-experimental.
Makikisabay ka sa saliw ng musika sa mga ginamit na popular na awitin sa pelikula.
Nagustuhan ko at nagandahan ako sa pelikula na kahit pa matapos ito ay mananatili pa rin ito sa aking isipan.
Tunay na isa ito sa pinakamahusay na pelikula ng taon.
Ngunit ang malaking tanong, sapat na bang tawaging “Perfect Days” ang mga araw na kabisado na natin ang mga nakagawian sa schedule natin? Maituturing ba na “Perfect Days” kapag naaayon sa sarili nating kagustuhan ang mga nangyayari? Paano kung may mga hindi inaasahang pangyayari o circumstances na maaaring magpahinto sa itinuturing na “Perfect Days”? Sabagay, depende na lamang talaga sa tao kung paano niya makikita ang bawat araw na perfect days dahil wala nga naman talagang perpektong mga araw.
(ang rebyu na ito ay una mo’ng mababasa rito)
