Rent Perfect Days on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Wim Wenders & Takuma Takasaki
Directed by: Wim Wenders
Starring: Kōji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.
Verdict
It's such a simple movie, focusing on a man that cleans toilets, but it explores the concept of peace. Hirayama defied expectations to forge his own path. Instead of focusing on what's next, getting a promotion, and making another dollar, he's created a life where he moves at his own speed, reads his books, and listens to his tapes. Despite a lowly job, he has more freedom than most people. A result of this freedom is his pace of life, where he has time to see the inherent beauty of the world. It's something so many people miss due to preoccupation with what's next.
Watch It.
Review
The public toilets featured in the movie were part of the Tokyo Toilet Project built for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The pandemic delayed the Olympics, so a retail executive contacted several screenwriters to advertise the toilets by making a documentary. Wenders was contacted and decided to make a feature instead. Wenders also co-wrote and directed Wings of Desire (1987). It's a similarly contemplative study of being human.
Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) cleans public toilets. Despite the nature of the job, he's dedicated and thorough. That's a contrast to his assistant Takashi (Tokio Emoto) who doesn't care about the job. I can't blame Takashi, cleaning toilets isn't glorious work.
I wondered how Hirayama got there. It doesn't seem like a job to which anyone would aspire. His days are routine, simple. Maybe that's the allure. It frees him to enjoy his hobbies. I wondered if he escaped the corporate rat race to focus on something less competitive.
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| Kōji Yakusho plays Hirayama |
Renowned architects designed the toilets to replace outdated facilities with inclusive, modern facilities. The glass-walled toilets turn opaque when locked. The goal was to improve the perception of safety and hygiene with the influx of people for the Olympics.
Takashi manages to coerce Hirayama into giving him a ride. Takashi sees the tapes in the van and tries to convince Hirayam to sell them. I wondered if he would sell. The audacity of Takashi to push him to sell his tapes and then ask for the money when they aren't even his. Hirayama does give him some money which only illustrates how nice he is.
With the title Perfect Days, we see the monotony of Hirayama's days. Is the simplicity approaching perfection? His role allows him time to look around, seeing the reflections of colors on surfaces, how shadows create patterns, and the beautiful trees. Maybe he just likes the pace of that life.
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| Kōji Yakusho plays Hirayama |
His niece shows up, and I guessed she ran away from home. Eventually her aunt, Hirayama's sister, shows up. We get a hint of why he has this life as she mentions their father has dementia and isn't as bad as he used to be. The sister also has a chauffeur which indicates what he left behind. She asks if he would visit their father, and he gives her a hug signalling the end of the conversation. It's easy to guess a wealthy yet abusive father. Hirayama rejected that life, giving up everything. I wonder if it was a conscious choice for this specific job or a complete rejection of the life he had as an act of defiance that would maximize the anger of this father.
The world tells us to strive for a promotion and more money. Hirayama likely had that or a route to it, but he found happiness in simplicity that allows him to pursue his passions of reading, music, and photography. I doubt he ever had time for that before he took his current job. He was likely pushed to work around the clock to earn that extra dollar. His conversation with his niece about different worlds ties into that. He didn't like that world so he made his own. In that same conversation she talks about what they could do next time. He dismisses next time and focuses on the now.
He lives a life where he enjoys the present. I'd guess his former life was always about what's next, obtaining what you don't have, and hurrying up to get there. While it's unlikely anyone else understands what the job grants him, I doubt Hirayama minds.
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