Mar 13, 2025 7:30 pm | Japan | 2023 | 124m | Cert PG | Drama
The highly anticipated return to fiction feature filmmaking from Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire), PERFECT DAYS takes the seasoned writer-director to Tokyo to tell a story celebrating the hidden joys and minutiae of Japanese culture.
In a deeply moving performance that won the Best Actor award at Cannes 2023, Koji Yakusho (Babel, 13 Assassins) stars as Hirayama, a contemplative middle-aged man who lives a life of modesty and serenity, spending his days balancing his job as a dutiful caretaker of Tokyo’s numerous public toilets with his passion for music, literature and photography. As we join him on his structured daily routine, a series of unexpected encounters gradually begin to reveal a hidden past that lies behind his otherwise content and harmonious life.
Channeling Wenders’ affection for the work of Yasujiro Ozu, and combining a refreshingly unstereotypical depiction of the Japanese capital – particularly the experience of typically unappreciated service work – with a soundtrack of iconic hits from the 60s and 80s, this is a subtle, shimmering and ultimately life-affirming marvel that champions the meditative beauty of the everyday world around us.
… While “Perfect Days” isn’t driven by its plot, but that doesn’t mean there’s a down stretch or a wasted move. It’s a movie about the importance of little moments — and a movie that’s full of such little moments, every one of which is a reward.
Sean P. Means, The Movie Cricket