Perfect Days

Wim Wenders’ first films were characterised by the theme of movement, and so it is no coincidence that the German filmmaker’s latest fiction feature is reminiscent of that luminous period in his filmography. The life of the mysterious man who cleans public toilets in Tokyo (played by Yakusho Koji) is defined by quotidian movement and observation. The prodigious secret of PERFECT DAYS lies in how it heightens our perception of all the transitional acts that determine his working routine; distraction is forbidden here. Everything indicates that cleaning toilets and urinals is an undesirable task, but in Japan this task appears like an appropriate procedure for a veritable science of cleanliness. And while it seems theoretically implausible that a man with such a job reads Faulkner at night, is a music lover and pays attention to the trees in order to photograph them with the sharpness of a professional, such qualities and passions can be seen as legitimate based on the other characters that appear in the film who duly reveal something of his past. Beauty and wonder are in equilibrium in all the sequences, and sublimely so when the dreams of this man who cleans bathrooms are depicted. (Roger Koza)

In the presence of Franz Lustig (Camera).

Wim Wenders: SUMMER IN THE CITY (1970), DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER (1972), ALICE IN DEN STÄDTEN (1974), DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (1977), PARIS, TEXAS (1984), TOKYO-GA (1985), DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (1987), THE END OF VIOLENCE (1997), BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999), LAND OF PLENTY (2004), PALERMO SHOOTING (2008), PINA (2011), DAS SALZ DER ERDE (2014, KO-REGIE), ANSELM (2023)