- Date of Release: 22 December 2023
- Genre: Drama
- Language: Japanese
Perfect Days
Introduction
It is a Saturday in what is the final weekend of 2023, a year that has indeed been special in terms of the diverse nature of content on celluloid. And to cap off the year, and with one eye on the Academy Awards this year, I decided to go on a rampant spree of watching a few of the film nominated in the foreign film category this year(in the Top 15). From the list, I had previously reviewed The Mother Of All Lies(Morocco’s Official Entry) and The Monk And The Gun(Bhutan’s Official Entry), and the stage was set perfectly to uncover and review the rest of the thirteen entries in the list. First up, I finished watching Perfect Days which is Japan’s Official Entry to the Academy Awards, and a film that can safely be touted as a dark horse. While the film has attained a lot of acclaim from across the globe, I missed my chance of watching the film at MAMI. But with the onset of VOD, I finally did get my chance of viewing Perfect Days without quite knowing qhat to expect. So then does Perfect Days manage to impress, let’s find out.
Story & Screenplay
Perfect Days follows ‘structured’ life of a Toilet Cleaner in Tokyo who leads a contented life far away from the pains that he may have endured previously with respect to his family. The story is a profound and meditative piece of art that just doesn’t feel tiresome even after being repetitive in nature. There is a hint of magic in the proceedings that does cast a spell around you, as you are invested continually in the journey of the protagonist as he makes his way through his daily chores with a smile on his face while continuing to be recluse and satisfied. The screenplay standing at 125 minutes has an inherent charm of a city that is touted to be ‘perfect’ while taking the viewers on a tour of it, mainly the ever-shining toilets that bear a contented look much like the protagonist. Yet, there is also a feeling of emptiness within the protagonist that often builds up on the emotions before allowing it to burst gently in the form of a tear. And that quite honestly, sums up the life of the protagonist in this increasingly meditative drama that is gently brimming with emotions.
The drama begins with the introduction of the protagonist as he follows a structured routine of waking up early, brushing his teeth, having his coffee and making his way to work, that of cleaning toilets around the city of Tokyo. You do not immediately get an answer of his structured life choice and the baggage that he maybe carrying. But his routine includes guiding his assistant on the job while also spending a peaceful afternoon sitting in a garden and capturing the swaying trees in sunlight, along with having a meal in a hole-in-a-wall kind of a restaurant. But it is his life outside his structured routine that is fascinating – his love for plants that forcing him to bring a stray plant home, or his love for rock and roll music in the form of cassettes that he often plays in his van wherein he is inclined to an analog way of life, a choice that reflects in his reading habit too. And the latter, often form the beautiful moments in a drama that romantacizes the life of a blue collar labourer.
The proceedings might seem engrossing but at no point was I not invested in the drama. In fact, the writing had an enchanting spell of me watching the routine life of a person with a blue-collared job go about his duties with precision. There is no real justification provided on the life that the protagonist chooses to live, only briefly acquainting the viewers with flashbacks in monochrome, symbolic of the pains that he may have been through. It is only after the introduction of his niece that we get to know a little more about his personal life, including his estranged sister and his father who might be suffering from dementia. Yet, the pathos of his life is replaced with stillness as he continues to live a contented life, only briefly being unstructured once his niece comes to live with him for a day.
In all of the stillness, the city Tokyo plays an important role in the drama, briefly touching upon the existing hierarchies that are prevalent in the city wherein people treat the protagonist only as a medium for getting the job done. The friendliness is only restricted to a piece of paper wherein a game of ‘X and 0’ is underway between the protagonist and an unknown stranger. But the emotions in the drama are prevalent below the existing calmness in the drama that threaten to resurface in the penultimate act through a game of shadows, that is also a searing commentary on the loneliness engulfing the city coupled with a sense of uncertainty. The shadow in itself is reflective of the person we once used to be but are deeply submerged in a sea of pain along the way, even though we continue to live our contented lives with a smile on our face, much like the protagonist. The pain never resurfaces, well almost never, until a quiet little moment of nature that reflects our thoughts which was essentially the final act of the film, with the sun breaking out to a new dawn even as tears begin to trickle down the protagonist as he drives through the city. Even the most recluse and contented people have gentle emotions brimming once in a while. The screenplay in other words is beautifully penned and crafts a spell around you like no other.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are sparingly used, often only to set just enough context for the unfolding drama, while inviting the viewers to form a gaze towards the protagonist and through him the recluse world that he resides in. The music also plays an integral part of the drama, often being a contrast to the structured life of the protagonist while being in sync with the smaller moments that he does cherish and is grateful for. The BGM too relies on the natural sounds of the surroundings that adds a layer of stillness and calmness in the drama. The cinematography captures the ‘perfect’ vibes of the city of Tokyo rather well. The frames play an important part in constructing a world around the protagonist that is often ‘perfect’ and ‘content’ while carrying a baggage of pain. The editing is wonderful allowing the drama to simmer in its repetitiveness without allowing the proceedings to lag. Director Wim Wenders is a masterful craftman who wishes only to gaze through the proceedings while allowing the viewers to interpret the ‘pain’ in their own way. He instead chooses to focus on the structure of the present life of the protagonist while leaving his unstructured past to be deciphered through moments of flashback. And even the emotional core of the film is reserved for its final act, that only bursts through the accumulating pain through a little trickle. And it is these moments that made me marvel at the director in what was a splendid piece of cinema in its truest form.
Performances
The performances are really good here. Tokio Emoto as Takashi and Aoi Yamanda as Aya have their moments to shine. Arisa Nakano as Niko has a easy going presence in a character that is indirectly associated with the past life of the protagonist, and she does a great job. Sayuri Ishikawa as Mama and Yumi Asou as Keiko are wonderful additions in the drama as well. But it is Koji Yakusho as Hirayama who is the soul of the film. His unassuming presence allows you to invest in its structured repetitive life while gently being curious on what lead him to his life choice. His charming effervescence is often restricted to a gentle smile on his face while his eyes tell a different story. The mountains of pain that he might be carrying is still unknown to him, and something that resurfaces only gently but the nuanced emotions are something that he absolutely nails in a incredibly moving acting masterclass of towering possibilities.
Conclusion
Japan’s Official Entry to the Academy Awards this year, Perfect Days is a meditative poetry on the life of a recluse blue-collar labourer that adds the much needed stillness with an underlying layer of emotions that gently resurface in the form of a trickle thus making it an almost perfect watch. This drama comes with my highest recommendation!
