- Starring
- Kôji Yakusho, Min Tanaka, Tokio Emoto
- Writers
- Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki
- Director
- Wim Wenders
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 124 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Perfect Days is the newest film from Wim Wenders, who has directed such acclaimed arthouse favorites as Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas. His latest film chronicles the day-to-day life of Hirayama (Yakusho), a man who cleans bathrooms for a living. Over the course of the film, audiences see him interact with several individuals where some end up having a more special connection in his life than others.
The plot is incredibly basic as its focus was primarily on mood and atmosphere. Meanwhile, it is also one that moves at an incredibly slow pace as it saw Hirayama cleaning toilets and being at peace. All of this results in what is likely to be a taxing experience for certain audiences, however, the film uses all of that to build up to a satisfying payoff. Lacking in whimsy or theatricality, it simply offers a series of observations about life. Watching Hirayama and his various interactions with the revolving door of people coming in and out of the bathrooms he tends to, and how he becomes a mentor figure to those closest to him, is incredibly sweet. Hirayama, in the end, is just a nice and wholesome guy trying to live his life.
While it could have been really easy for Perfect Days to be a condemnation on how terrible it is to be stuck in the rat race of life and how work can take so much from us, the film merely takes that central message in a different direction. Many let work take so much away that it is easy to forget one’s self. When it comes to Hirayama, he doesn’t let his work life do that to him. Instead, he continues to be at peace with himself. He lives his best life despite his unglamorous job, which in and of itself, offers a unique perspective to which the film approaches the workforce of today.
At the end of the day, for those working menial jobs like that of Hirayama, Past Days will surely feel cathartic in some way. The film delivers a call to action to live and embrace every moment life delivers, even if it may not look so glamorous on the surface. It is a tranquil film that needs to seen. In a world with so many films about doom and gloom, it’s nice to have something that simply tells audiences to give life a chance.
*still courtesy of TIFF*
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