BY IRVIN RIVERA

Win Wender’s PERFECT DAYS starring 2024 Cannes Film Festival Best actor winner Koji Yakusho is picturesque, contemplative, quiet film about the days in the life of a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo, Japan. Hirayama’s (Yakusho) life, punctuated by the seemingly mundane acts of grabbing a can of coffee from a vending machine outside his house, listening to songs from Nina Simone, Patti Smith, The Kinks, Van Morrison, Lou Reed from cassette tapes on his drive to work and back, nonchalantly interacting with pedestrians passing by and using the toilet, taking film photos, reading books and occasionally dreaming or having daydreams of whatever abstract visions that haunts him- gently reminds me of the life of the characters from Haruki Murakami’s books. There’s music, there’s something magical about the stillness, but also something disturbing at the same time.    

I feel like it’s one of those movies that warrant contextual knowledge about the cultural setting of the story- the mores, beliefs and customs that envelope the life of the characters. Otherwise, some things could be lost in translation. Some people may deem Hirayama’s life as pathetic (cleaning toilets and choosing that kind of life) while some may view it as something noble, minimal and even spiritual to some degree. It’s cultural, it’s polarizing, but it opens up avenues for dialogue.

There are layers of themes to unpack in this movie and there are Reddit threads about it, if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Personally, I enjoyed the film for its stillness. There’s beauty in its vague presentations of life from the main character’s perspective. Hirayama’s life surrounded by books, cassette tapes and photography, amidst the intertwining lives of the city and nature around it is an ideal scenario that constantly lives in my imagination. If I were take one photograph of a day in the life of living in Tokyo, I would want to capture a day in the life of Hirayama

There’s beauty in living in the now. Echoing Hirayama: “Next time is next time, now is now.”

Hirayama seems content, albeit also possibly struggling with his own internal issues, but is never presented as lonely. This film encourages you to meditate on the power of being present, the ability to exist and be grounded at the same time.