Perfect Days (2023) (Film Review)

Perfect Days (2023) I didn’t really know the director, Wim Wenders. So, yes, I’d seen The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), but it really didn’t leave me with an incredible or inexhaustible memory. I’ll happily see his Submergence (2017) one of these days.

A mindfulness film, poetic as can be and very beautifully novelised. But it’s hard to rate, I find. I really liked it, but I can’t deny that it’s very long.

This film tells the story of a Japanese man who enjoys every moment of his life. Wherever he is, he lives it to the full. He is a master in the art of appreciating the power of the present moment in all its beauty. Whenever he has a moment, he looks at nature. He’s happy to be alive. And he loves to read.

Basically, the main actor walks through the days in the manner of a Zen master, we see him rejoicing each day in the morning and looking at the sky, the trees. He seems to have an inner happiness, regardless of his job cleaning toilets in Tokyo’s public space, which is certainly not pleasant. He doesn’t seem to have any friends, and his schedule is subject to ritual.

The film does indeed invite meditation, as he is able to take life with a certain lightness. And that’s exactly what it suggests: a hell of a lot of spiritual training. On the other hand, it could also be criticised for being a romanticised representation. The toilets are in fact always clean when we see them, the disgusting aspect, which is certainly present in public toilets, is completely overshadowed in the film.

Loneliness isn’t a problem either, apparently. We can agree that cleaning toilets and the routine of a day are not necessarily mastered with ease. It could also be filmed as a disgusting job and a loneliness that could also weigh on us. But the main character is beyond that. It simply doesn’t affect him.He’s willing to help, but doesn’t let it get to him.

There are some magical moments in this film. There’s a tic-tac-toe game hidden in a toilet just waiting to be filled. There’s the niece who comes to visit and who gets on better with this uncle than with her own mother. She also likes to read and doesn’t mind helping him clean the toilets.The music is excellent. The man still listens to K7s and thinks Spotify is a shop. We hear The Animals, by Van Morrison. The first song we hear is The Animals’ best-known song. Later, a woman who runs a restaurant sings it… in Japanese!

A young Japanese girl falls for Patti Smith. And Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” completes the soundtrack. In the end credits, we hear an instrumental version on the piano. I love seeing Japan in films.And their language is very pleasant to the ear.

This film touched me in so many ways. I really knew someone who was super-intelligent, who had done brilliantly well in his studies, even at university. But one day he confessed to me that what he really liked to do in life… was clean toilets! To each his own. So this film seems to have been made for him.There’s an important moment in the film (I won’t tell you which) where you don’t really know whether the character is laughing or crying. He’s laughing, then he’s crying anyway (with joy, perhaps?).

Watching it, I felt a certain lightness and it’s quite touching and I’ve heard of viewers shedding a tear too.

Although I wonder if the film has its unrealistic side. In any case, it’s a little too long and the grey areas are almost non-existent. But it’s the story of a Zen master in Tokyo, plain and simple!PS: I found this little review very simple, but effective: “Beautiful!Very poetic and so tender.In fact, Beauty is everywhere… sometimes we just need to know how to stop and better savour what surrounds us!!!”

Yes, Beauty is everywhere, just as we saw in the extraordinary American Beauty (1999).

My Rating