Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days
A curious Western/Japanese-hybrid Boomer film.
According to Wikipedia Wim Wenders is 78 as of 2024 and he still looks good and vibrant. I’ve only seen Paris, Texas from 1984, so it’s a 40 year gap in output, but you can see similarities between the two films. Paris, Texas to me is a genre-defining piece which along side Jim Jarmusch, somewhat updated the French New Wave cinema verité to the “American” style. What I mean by this is there is much more of an overt dramatization going on compared to the “cool” detached French 60s style. In linguistic terms the films often say “hey, look over here” when they want to convey meaning. Perfect Days is kind of a late or closing period example of that, and I suspect a big audience is going to like it, especially Boomers. Where you fall on that conclusion will largely determine your view on the rest of this article.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I want to start with perhaps the least noticeable part of the movie - the photography as I call it. Normally you’d call it cinematography, but for some reason to me this feels like how you shoot with the same camera the main character uses in the film - an Olympus Stylus mju II. I had one of these in university. It takes photos like the movie’s visual style. Nostalgic, a little soft, and with a Kodak hypercolor that really is too dramatic to be in the realm of realness. Also the hand-held video camera used throughout the movie adds a “shoot from the hip” style which around the year 2000 was pretty cool with everything from skateboard videos to indie rock concert bootlegs. In 2024, it seems a bit of a relic, again somewhat grabbing the over 60-somethings by the lapels for one last “romp” of youthful fun.
As well, the theme of passing on photography and the “coolness” of a past from Boomer to Gen Z is an ongoing fixture in the film. Is it bad or good? Depending on whether you identify with this life-baton-pass will determine your opinion I think. For me, it’s too heavy handed to be universally interesting and I think it highlights the first difference between a Western and a Japanese sensibility which also is at odds in every area of the film.
ACTING
The main actor, Koji Yakusho, has an immediately friendly vibe about him and is well cast for the character and plot line, in both his age and acting style. He has just he right physique to be regal but not pretty, pathos-inducing but not pathetic, and hard-working but not robotic. Many other actors would create a less believable role. As a movie without much dialogue his highly expressive face conveys tons of meaning, as with the photography, about exactly what you’re supposed to think.
Would a Japanese film of any era do it this way, unlikely. It once again highlights the Western slant to the story and I wonder during filming just how much overt direction Mr. Wenders gave. The final 3 minute single-take is really too much and certainly if this film was dubbed it would tip over into the Hollywood schlock category pretty badly. I think the inherent restraint of dialogue and the Japanese actors themselves save it from that fate.
PLOT
The plot for better or worse mimics two of Jim Jarmusch’s films very closely - Paterson and Broken Flowers, as does the emotion of the main actor and the pacing of the action. Is this envy or does Wenders just come from the same school? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just as all punk music sounds basically the same, there’s no harm in reusing a tried and true pattern when it works. The serene daily routine mixed with the contrast of an unknown “past life” and the redemption of the main character through work are timeless ideas, especially from the Christian history and also from the lore of the “everyday working-man”.
Again, whether you find the portrayal and plot believable probably comes down to your belief in the cultural lore itself. Perfect Days is not setting forth any new questions or particularly talking to any generation younger than 60, but I think from the many many times I’ve heard Boomers tell basically the same stories of their own lives, it will resonate strongly with anyone over 60. There’s a lot of emotion and heart-strings-tugging that is hard to resist, but also somewhat questionable in the quite sad and stark 2024 reality that the rest of the population has to live in.
SOUNDTRACK
I love all these songs, but please, they have been used far too often in movies. It’s camp. At least don’t start the songs at the beginning whenever he puts the tapes into the stereo. That’s not how tapes work. Ridiculous. Imagine if there was an original score by someone like Ryuichi Sakamoto or any top quality Japanese 80s singer. It could have elevated the whole film out of dead nostalgia. Kudos does go to the rather excellent Maki Asakawa singing ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ in the bar. They should have had her sing the whole film.
SETTING
I leave the setting to the last because this is perhaps the truest portion of the film in that it does say something new, or at least seems to show some true reality in a rather pleasant and artistic way. It’s similar in the effect that Éric Rohmer so often succeeds at doing. If you read any of the Western reviews of the film they all make note of the banality of the main character cleaning toilets in Tokyo. As is so often the case of cultural naiveté, I’d venture most of these people have never been to Tokyo, let alone used one of its many public toilets. They are anything but banal, and neither is the staff of cleaners. Unlike the main character in the film who is purposely shown to feel natural awe while doing his job, it’s my experience that Japanese service people elicit no such outward feeling. More importantly, they seem to take value in a completely different and, again, non-Western way of working.
Simply, they like the feeling of the work itself, not the moment between the jobs where the light in the trees flickers, or there is some “unique” special person who fleetingly comes into view. The work itself is the connection to humanity or perhaps some elemental order of the universe, and the closer they get to perfection the happier they seem to be. It’s duty to the other, not self-awakening. For this reason, all across Tokyo, the toilets are immaculate, and they are free and open to use everywhere. Whether you are a billionaire or a homeless person, you use the toilet in the park or in the subway just the same and can expect it to always be clean and functional. The enormity of this compared to the downright disgusting state of public facilities in the Western world is hopefully going to be highlighted in some way by this film. I would find it much more interesting to see an actual documentary about these workers and I suspect it would have at least as much emotional resonance as Perfect Days.
CONCLUSION
Perfect Days is a great Sunday afternoon film, or something to watch on a plane. Given the pretty dreadful year of movies that was 2024, it’s in the top half of releases and if you’re over 60, you’ll probably really enjoy the nostalgia and the style, acting, and plot. I can think of 20 or so people I know who would be clapping at the end in the theatre.
If you aren’t a Boomer, or still possess patience, then there are 40 or 50 other films that are of the same genre but are more enjoyable and better executed. Broken Flowers and Paterson are two, Paris, Texas is Wenders’ masterpiece, and the recent Japanese films Drive My Car, or Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy are much more authentic and richly enjoyable.
I fear as well that many Western tourists will see this and fall under the spell of another Lost in Translation travel bug, coming to Tokyo to tour the toilets, completely not appreciating the extremely deep cultural basis for how and why these things can exist, and taking only a “photo snapshot” back to Western life as opposed to applying some of the depth of thinking that could really improve society at home for the next generation.
AVAILABILITY
THE RATING
6/10 Absolute
7/10 Relative
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