CANNES REVIEW: Perfect Days, Wim Wenders’ New Film

German filmmaker Wim Wenders teamed up with producer and writer Takuma Takasaki along with acclaimed Japanese actor and producer Koji Yakusho (Best Actor Winner-Cannes), who stars as Hirayama, a man who cleans toilets for a living in Tokyo, for the Cannes premiere Perfect Days.

Perfect Days also stars Tokio Emoto, Yumi Asô, Aoi Yamada, and Arisa Nakano and was co-written by Wenders and Takasaki, especially for Koji Yakusho, who serves as a producer.

Koji Yakusho wins Best Actor for ‘Perfect Days’ by Wim Wenders #Cannes2023 #CannesFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/gNNLUUGIa0

— Glitter Magazine (@glittermagazine) May 27, 2023

In a poetic and visually stimulating film, we see Hirayama move through the city, cleaning random, well-designed public toilets from sun up to sun down.

There’s more than meets the eye in Perfect Days, with Hirayama not having much dialogue through the film but speaking volumes with his character, his meticulous work ethic in keeping each bathroom clean despite no one really checking in on him, and despite the bathrooms getting continuously dirty just seconds after he completes each one.

We are introduced to various members of the public that Hirayama runs into, some hastily wanting to get past him and his mop and bucket, a lost child with an inadvertently ungrateful mother who doesn’t take the second needed to thank Hirayama for making sure the child is ok, to an unknown stranger starting a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with him, by leaving a note behind a mirror in one of the lavatories.

Wim Wenders shares a delightful drama with ‘Perfect Days’ on a man who cleans toilets throughout Tokyo, Koji Yakusho (Hirayama), and has a past time of photographing trees and nature and is an avid reader. His work and life is a methodology with most days appearing redundant but… pic.twitter.com/rSqnyBUQiv

— Nikki Fowler (@NikkiFowler28) May 27, 2023

Hirayama lives in the center of a metal and concrete jungle, urban Tokyo. Still, he loves the serenity of taking and collecting photos, reading, and nature, caring for the plants in his tiny apartment that we see him meticulously gathering and propagating with permission from various natural spots throughout the city.

He drives an older, rickety blue van with his company logo, The Tokyo Toilet, emblazoned in white as well as on his blue uniform. Hirayama drives along to an amazing soundtrack as he pops in vintage cassette tapes, merging the old with the new, as we see him interacting with his very hyper, young, and inexperienced coworker who isn’t always on time if he even shows up for work.

Perfect Days has much deeper layers than observers following one man’s repetitive journey through life on his blue-collar job. Viewers examine Hirayama’s life, his minimal interactions with unexpected family, a few neighborhood friends, a homeless man, and the general public.

Included are what appear to be abstract dreamscapes throughout the film, which help to uncover who Hirayama really is or who we think he is, with the film allowing a fluid translation from the viewer. Perfect Days has breathtaking cinematography, sound, and music, which will invigorate your senses.

Perfect Days will have you questioning Hirayama’s daily life and your own and what your relationship with nature, people, and places means to you as you walk through your journey that you call life.

While reported on in Cannes, this article has been updated to reflect Perfect Days‘ US theatrical release and our interviews with Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki, and Koji Yanai above and below.