The genesis of “Perfect Days,” the Academy Award nominated film playing at Woodmere on Jan. 6, begins in a public restroom. Or, rather, it begins in several.
In the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, 17 public toilets designed by celebrated architects were opened across Tokyo under an ambitious urban renewal campaign called the Tokyo Toilet. When COVID-19 delayed the games and prevented live crowds from attending, the Tokyo Toilet turned to more creative means to garner publicity. The Tokyo Toilet partnered with screenwriter Takuma Takasaki and German director Wim Wenders, best known for lyrical, dreamlike films like “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire,” to create a series of short films highlighting the structures. After Wenders’ trip to Tokyo, the project morphed from a series of shorts into one feature length film, and one of the most quietly profound and affecting movies of the last decade was born.
Sixty-something Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) leads a simple life. As an employee of the Tokyo Toilet, he cleans and maintains Tokyo’s public restrooms. En route to the restrooms under his charge, he listens to his cherished collection of cassettes in his van. On his lunch break, he eats a sandwich and photographs the light dappling through the branches of trees. On his time off, he rides his bike, reads Faulkner, and visits a restaurant operated by his crush (Sayuri Ishikawa). He observes much and says little, and in this ordered little life, other people are kept at a distance. As he goes about his morning routine, Hirayama has a series of interactions with the people and the world around him that slowly break down the barriers he’s built around himself.
Like Hirayama himself, “Perfect Days” is quiet and deliberate. Cinematographer Franz Lustig’s gentle camera work invites the viewer to imbue Hirayama’s daily routine with the same engrossing, zen-like attention that he does. “Perfect Days” revels in quiet moments: a can of coffee at the start of a new day, a game of tic-tac-toe played anonymously on a slip of paper tucked safely into a public restroom, the gentle movement of trees swaying in the wind. Before long, the viewer has fallen into the enticing, hypnotic flow of Hirayama’s days. It’s the variations, however, that provide the film with its quiet power. Hirayama begins to reveal himself to the audience through the elements he cannot control, such as interactions with a chatty slacker co-worker or his rebellious niece. As he is pulled into their lives, Hirayama’s routine is thrown into relief. Even this solitary, monastic life, it turns out, impacts the world around him in ways he could not see. If Wim Wenders’ 1984 magnum opus “Paris, Texas” is a movie about learning how to let go, “Perfect Days,” perhaps a sequel in spirit, is about learning how to reconnect.
“Perfect Days” is a celebration of small moments and the people with whom we share them. Like the sun that filters through the leaves that Hirayama delights in photographing, beauty and meaning are found in the light and motion that leak into our ordered lives. Not bad for a promotional film for public restrooms.
“Perfect Days” screens at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6, as part of the Tuesday Nights at the Movies series. The film will screen in Japanese with English subtitles. Light refreshments will be provided prior to the screening. Tuesday Nights at the Movies screenings are free to the public, but donations are greatly appreciated. Woodmere is at 9201 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill.
