Instagram and TikTok can really skew perspective sometimes. All these lavish lifestyles, curated photos, public proclamations of love certainly seem like the ideal way to live, but it takes a specific level of insane confidence, gorgeous looks, psychotic behavior, or vast riches to pull this off. Wim Wenders and Koji Yakusho show people everywhere there’s other, more practical, ways to find Perfect Days for yourself. And you don’t even need trust funds or 6 packs!
Maybe people would be less scared of public toilets if there were more Hirayama’s (Koji Yakusho) in the world. Hirayama wakes up, gets his 2 coffees, and goes about his day to day job of cleaning the public toilets assigned to him with the help of his trainee Takashi (Tokio Emoto). Hirayama drives toilet to toilet, rocking out to cassettes along the way until his work is done, only stopping for a cute lunch in a park in Tokyo. After work and on weekends, he’ll go to one of a couple favorite places for food or a drink, then read some books, until he’s too tired and falls asleep, up and at em again on Monday morning.
Only you know what makes you happy. Perfect Days shows the end result of someone living in contentment for most of their days. It was probably a long trial and error process, but for Hirayama, this specific routine is exactly what he wants out of his life right now. Because of that, every moment he has this little grin on his face, even when staring down a poop explosion in one of those toilets. That happiness is seen outwardly through his actions, diligently and meticulously doing his job, enjoying the little day to day differences he encounters like a tic tac toe game in a stall wall, or a kid playing hide and seek. He’s alone, but not lonely, trying to help out Takashi in his relationship pursuit of super cool Aya (Aoi Yamada) and enjoying the bro out with his after work beer/glass of water. And there’s still enough space in his life for little day to day shifts, like emergency covering a shift, or spending a day with his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano). The combination of steady routine with these day to day moments are aspirational, but completely achievable, as Wenders spends a great deal of showing the audience in Perfect Days.
The big reason the movie works though is Koji Yakusho. He doesn’t talk for most of the film, meaning we’re in a silent movie watching him live out his simple, happy life. That boyish grin hides behind it a well of feelings and emotions. There’s amusement in a weird situation he saw, bliss from the way he captures the sun behind the trees on his lunchbreak, a bit of melancholy when it comes to fleeting romantic opportunities, and deep empathy for the plight of Takashi’s love life or Niko’s stern household. And as someone who can be stupidly dancing to a song on my phone, music has this way of also just stirring feelings to get Koji excited, or out of a funk, or simply to quietly be a little sad. But glueing it all together is that inescapable optimism when a new day starts, as Yakusho makes the audience excited at what new mini adventure awaits today.
I thought Paterson was going to be the best movie made about a normal person, but Wim Wenders had other ideas. Perfect Days is better in almost every way, because it actually shows what real true happiness looks like when someone hits their groove. If you’re in your Perfect Days now, cherish it, because it won’t last forever, even though you can always get em back.