#TIFF23 Review: Perfect Days (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado

★★★½ (out of 4)

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

An older man wakes up in the morning and gets ready for work. He tenderly mists his houseplants before leaving his modest home, and listens to old cassette tapes in his minivan packed with cleaning supplies, as he drives to do his job tending to Japan’s public toilets for a living. The man is Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho), who does this decidedly unglamorous job quietly and attentively.

Hirayama patiently waits outside the single stall washrooms if someone needs to go in to do their business, and gives admonishing looks to young co-worker Takashi (Tokio Emoto), who clearly doesn’t see the same value in his work. While Hirayama takes his time (even using a little mirror to check the underside of the toilet bowl), Takashi is distracted by his phone, and hastily rushes through cleaning the bathrooms to be with his waiting girlfriend.

Hirayama is the central figure in German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ masterful new film Perfect Days, a Tokyo-set character drama that finds both rhythm and meaning in how it captures the daily rituals of this quiet janitor. Hirayama is a low-key man who often doesn’t say much, opening up more through his appreciation for music and literature. Yakusho, who was awarded the Best Actor prize at Cannes for the role, delivers a brilliantly understated performance, imbuing his portrayal with a wealth of nuance and feeling often simply through how scenes play off his face.

Are Hirayama’s days meaningless or filled with meaning? It’s all a matter of perspective. As Hirayama’s routines start to repeat themselves in the film, and we learn more about him from his encounters with other people, we start to feel an almost zen-like pattern to his days. Wenders’ filmmaking is subtle in a way that helps the film’s “live in the moment” message hit home in a way that doesn’t feel overly pat. The power of the film is in how it captures life happening in the details, showing the mundane moments that end up being remembered.

For a film with many scenes that take place in the public toilets of Tokyo, there is an undeniable grace and beauty to Perfect Days. Wenders infuses artful, dreamlike images showing the trees that Hirayama loves to watch and photograph, and it’s all set to an evocative soundtrack of the classic rock songs that he listens to in his van (including the Lou Reed track that inspired the film’s title). This is a quiet, meditative film, building to an ending that, in its own way, leaves a massive impact.