perfect days (2023)
Jan. 29th, 2025 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
porticoi had never heard of Perfect Days, a 2023 Wim Wenders film. it made the festival circuit and then came out in the US in 2024. at the end of 2024, my friend Jody listed it as her favourite film of the year, which was the first i became aware of it. i watched it on the flight back from Portland on New Year's Day, which had such persistent streaming issues that everyone's movies kept dropping out, but i was so enraptured with the film that i patiently poked at my screen each time until it came back. absolutely worth it.
Perfect Days follows Hirayama, who cleans public toilets in Tokyo (sidenote: the public toilets in Tokyo are so nice???) and lives a very solitary life. the film introduces you to his routine slowly--he wakes early, puts his futon away, dresses in the dark, brushes his teeth, mists his plants, buys a can of coffee at the vending machine outside of his house, then gets in his van and chooses a cassette tape for the ride in. he takes pride in his work, which is baffling to his young coworker. he eats his lunch sitting under the trees near a temple. he carries a small film camera and photographs the branches above him. he is kind.
Hirayama rejoices in his routine, and so does the film, doing so in a way that feels comfortable but not repetitive. he almost never speaks, and yet you learn so much about him. when we reached the first weekend in the movie, i was overjoyed to watch him go to the laundromat. this is the whole movie, i thought. how wonderful.
it isn't, however. things disrupt Hirayama's routine, and he goes with it in a beautifully human way. i am still in awe at just how human this movie is. how much it tells us without saying anything at all. i have found that my reaction to more and more mainstream movies over-explaining to me is to really revel in movies that don't tell me anything. i want to OBSERVE, to come to CONCLUSIONS. this is a wonderful film for that.
i cannot overstate how phenomenal Kōji Yakusho's performance as Hirayama is. what a face, what a presence. spends most of the film not speaking and tells you so much. this movie is a gem. every facet of it shines.
Perfect Days follows Hirayama, who cleans public toilets in Tokyo (sidenote: the public toilets in Tokyo are so nice???) and lives a very solitary life. the film introduces you to his routine slowly--he wakes early, puts his futon away, dresses in the dark, brushes his teeth, mists his plants, buys a can of coffee at the vending machine outside of his house, then gets in his van and chooses a cassette tape for the ride in. he takes pride in his work, which is baffling to his young coworker. he eats his lunch sitting under the trees near a temple. he carries a small film camera and photographs the branches above him. he is kind.
Hirayama rejoices in his routine, and so does the film, doing so in a way that feels comfortable but not repetitive. he almost never speaks, and yet you learn so much about him. when we reached the first weekend in the movie, i was overjoyed to watch him go to the laundromat. this is the whole movie, i thought. how wonderful.
it isn't, however. things disrupt Hirayama's routine, and he goes with it in a beautifully human way. i am still in awe at just how human this movie is. how much it tells us without saying anything at all. i have found that my reaction to more and more mainstream movies over-explaining to me is to really revel in movies that don't tell me anything. i want to OBSERVE, to come to CONCLUSIONS. this is a wonderful film for that.
i cannot overstate how phenomenal Kōji Yakusho's performance as Hirayama is. what a face, what a presence. spends most of the film not speaking and tells you so much. this movie is a gem. every facet of it shines.
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Date: 2025-01-30 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 06:54 am (UTC)