Perfect Days (Wim Wenders, 2023, Japan/Germany)

Perfect Days is the latest narrative effort from Wim Wenders. A co-production between Germany and Japan, the film is shot entirely in Japan, with a Japanese cast, and in the Japanese language. This ambitious project is successful, perhaps because it is not too ambitious in its scope. It is the self-contained story of a toilet cleaner in the Shibuya district of Tokyo named Hirayama. Much of the film is simply devoted to his daily routine, involving cleaning toilets (The Tokyo Toilet, an initiative involving the redesign of public toilets in the city). The film was initially intended to be a project about these toilets, which is funny considering how deep the film becomes.

Perfect Days follows Hirayama on his routine and then places him in contrast to his younger, goofy male co-worker Takashi (Tokio Emoto). Takashi always has money problems, and Hirayama bails him out when he needs it. Hirayama is entirely silent for the first part of the film, and we begin to wonder about the origins of his mutism. Eventually, Hirayama's family life begins to intervene in his serene routine. His estranged sister arrives and tells him that their father has late-stage dementia, but Hirayama refuses to visit him.

Perfect Days poses interesting questions about the nature of happiness. This is expressed very clearly when Hirayama's ostensibly successful sister is in disbelief that he is still cleaning toilets. Yet Hirayama is deeply invested and proud of his work, and he seems to have a meaningful inner life outside of it, which is made clear by his extensive reading as well as the music he loves. The film's soundtrack is one of the best aspects of the film, filled with great classic rock including Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and the Velvet Underground. Perfect Days is a pleasure to watch.

8/10