The Reward of Silence and Contemplation

while films getting louder and bolder with outrageous CGI in order to make numb our senses, Wim Wenders gave us a masterclass on contemplation, contentment, structure and commitment. Perfect Days is a quiet film, anchored masterfully by Kōji Hashimoto.  

 

With our local teledrama, the producers here are addicted with glorifying empty material wealth, the plot will focus entirely on love and conflict, against the backdrop consists of out of reach relatives of T20, unrealistic furniture showroom, the drama need 50 episodes ensure the protagonist reach into the very end of the tunnel.

Dont worry, any single episode will take away all your precious IQ.

Perfect Days was shot only for 17 days, the screenplay took only 3 weeks, Wim Wenders goes zen and full analogue mode in giving us a space to glimpse of a toilet worker named Hirayama. Toilet worker ok, not a Yakuza or a retired assassin. 

Those forgettable quaint moments, reflections and observations is the main highlight here. 

Most importantly, the film is designed for us to have conversations Hirayama,  Wim cut away information, explanations, justifications for Hirayama, leaving us all alone to understand and know who Hirayama is. 

a smart move!

and yes Koji Hashimoto won the Best Actor Award in Cannes Festival 2023. The film is one comfortable hot chicken soup you need in a long cold night.

 

Hirayama's Back Story -   

"I gave it to [Kôji Yakusho] Hirayama, so he could read it. So he would know. But other than that, I figured people would have to put it together on their own. I'll give you this much: He was a businessman and he was rich and he was unhappy and he was drinking a lot and his life was going down the drain. One morning he wakes up in this crummy hotel room, doesn't even know how he got there, doesn't even know if he had sex or whatever happened. He thinks his life is shit, and he doesn't like it. He actually plays with the idea of ending it.

Then, miraculously, early in the morning, there's this ray of sunlight appearing on this wall in front of him. And it falls through the little tree in front of the window. There is this play of leaves and sunlight and shadows moving, and he looks at it and stares at it and he starts crying, because he's never seen anything so beautiful. He probably has seen it, but he hasn't noticed. Then he realizes that's the answer to his existential crisis, to become somebody who notices that.

He gives up his expensive car, his business job and becomes a gardener and eventually, the guardian of these toilets, because they're all in little parks. Somehow, they found Hirayama as the ideal character to take care of them. That was the backstory." - in a 2024 interview with The Progressive, Wim Wenders.