A nice film to accompany these days of the Moon in Pisces. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders-2023)
Being satisfied with the life one leads is something that few men or women can say, especially in today's fiercely capitalist societies. The new film by veteran German director Wim Wenders follows the daily routine of Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), a quiet, lonely and calm middle-aged man who works as a public toilet cleaner in the city of Tokyo. On weekdays he always does the same thing: he wakes up early, waters his plants, buys a coffee from a vending machine, takes his van to go to work while listening to cassettes of Patty Smith, the Kinks or Lou Reed, and cleans the toilets one after the other. , sometimes accompanied by a goofy young companion and, at other times, alone. In the afternoons he always goes to the same bar and at night he reads William Faulkner and Patricia Highsmith, among others. One of his hobbies is photographing a tree, of course, with an analog camera, since Wenders has anchored his character in the past as a nostalgic way of reclaiming other times, perhaps simpler ones. The peace and balance of Hirayama's life is only challenged when his teenage niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) appears on the scene, forcing him to leave his comfort zone and having to take care of her. But this situation lasts a few days and his niece returns to her mother, his sister. Their meeting suggests that something serious had to happen in the past for Hirayama not to talk to her and we can also assume that the result of this is the current life that our protagonist leads, whose social status does not correspond to that of an educated man. and cult that the director shows us from the beginning of the film.
Written in collaboration with Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter Takuma Takasaki, Perfect Days develops a simple script, without overly strong narrative turning points, but with a fair tendency toward repetition. I don't see it necessary to repeat the same actions so much so that we get an idea of Hirayama's life. It seems that on this occasion Wenders is getting a little out of hand. What he is very good at is showing the deep humanity of the character, supported by the sensational interpretation of Koji Yakusho, who builds a bittersweet character, who seems to fully accept life as he has had to live it but who will only acquire all its real meaning in the last shot of the film, which I don't want to reveal, but which is wonderful. The musical themes chosen by Wenders for his film correspond to his widely known musical tastes, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, The Animals, in addition to those previously mentioned, provide a very special contrast with the Japanese culture where the story takes place. The director of photography Franz Lustig films the urban environments of the Japanese capital in an academic format, achieving very good images, although on certain occasions he falls a bit into cliché. And I can't help but mention my surprise at how clean the public bathrooms are in this movie. We know that the Japanese are clean, but I don't believe that they are that clean.
The film marks the return of Wim Wenders to good cinema, following the path of his works Paris, Texas (1984) or The Sky Over Berlin (1987), after decades of stumbling and delivering mediocre works. Perfect Days is a profound character study that overflows with humanism and spirituality and, despite its flaws and being somewhat bland in several aspects, is a highly recommended film for its optimism in these fast-paced times.
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