Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This review was originally published on May 26, 2023 out of the Cannes Film Festival.
We are recirculating it now timed toPerfect Daysupcoming U.S. theatrical release.
Heres what we know about him.
His name is Hirayama, and hes played by the great Japanese actor Koji Yakusho.
He then drives around the city, quietly and meticulously cleaning its public bathrooms.
Then its back to work.
Somebody notes that its pointless to be so thorough, since itll all get dirty again.
How can you put so much into a job like this?
He loves watching shadows, leaves, branches, a stray sparkle on a ceiling.
pictures of what he sees.
He says almost nothing.
At nights he reads; hes currently reading Faulkner, but theres Highsmith and others on the shelves.
And then he dreams, drifting and inexact, shimmering black-and-white images replaying the humdrum details of his day.
The directors whole career has been built on the elusive search for now.
Whenever a character grasped it, they lost it.
Either they vanished or the moment did.
InPerfect Days, it seems hes realized he doesnt need to do any of that.
The film is always on the verge of explaining itself but thankfully never does.
The key to depicting simplicity, it turns out, is to embody that simplicity.
Your cousin could have written this movie.
But maybe only Wenders could have directed it.
He has the sensitivity to shoot the seesawing depths of Yakushos face.
Theres a whole other world out there, and we sense that it sometimes whispers to Hirayama.
But hes happy where he is.
Next time is next time, he says.
By the time it was over, I wanted to put on a Tokyo Toilets jumpsuit myself.
