I just returned from the movie theatre where I watched Perfect Days, Wim Wenders new Japanese-speaking film, set in Tokyo – for the second time in a week. I loved this film so much. It follows the life of a fellow named Hirayama. Each day he awakes, visits his balcony collection of tree seedlings, then heads off to work, cleaning toilets in Tokyo. He reads Faukner and Highsmith, and listens to old cassettes of Lou Reed and Nina Simone and Van Morrison and Otis Redding in his cleaning van. Each day Hirayama takes his lunch in a treed public area, pulls out his old-school film camera and photographs the tree.

Koji Yakusho is perfect as Hirayama, who has a clear understanding that sometimes less really is more. We see a great deal on the often close-up face of Yakusho. What a brilliant and understated performance!

Perfect Days is, at least to me, almost unbearably beautiful. It is about living in the moment, and about enjoying the beauty to be found in the ordinary, and about a middle-aged character coming to terms with his own mortality. It is also a love letter from Wim Wenders to Tokyo. The constant footage of Tokyo today flavours the entire film, with the Tokyo Skytower as a reference point we see over and over.

The toilets, curiously enough, also become like another character in the film. There are 17 Tokyo public toilets featured, designed by architects Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma and each is unique and highly creative.

The film is presented as a slice of life. It emphasizes Hirayama’s repetitive work-life and personal-life activities, yet there is a lot going on and the interactions with other characters give us clues about Hirayama’s life throughout.

Highly recommended. See it while it’s still on the big screen. Warning: no superheros or explosives.