Film: Perfect Days
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Tokio Emoto, Yumi Asou, Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura, Min Tanaka
Director: Wim Wenders
Rating: 4/5
Runtime: 125 min.

German-born director 78 year old Wim Wenders, draws inspiration from life in Japan, in this his latest cinematic offering. In “Perfect Days,” Wenders looks to the orderly, austere, yet culturally rich life of an older Tokyo resident.

Through his lead character Hirayama (played by Koji Yakusho), he exposes us to the beauty of everyday life. A mild-mannered trim man with salt and pepper hair, Hirayama is content with his simple regulated life as a sanitation worker (cleaner of high-end public toilets in the fashionable Shibuya district of Tokyo) and outside of that he enjoys a passion for music, books, nature and photography. He gets up every morning in his modest apartment and drives a van to his workplace, playing his curated cassette collection. He wakes up early, puts his room to order, watches the sun come up and prepares to head to his work place with a minimal economy. He drives his car and enjoys songs that include “The House of the Rising Sun;” by The Animals, “Pale Blue Eyes” by The Velvet Underground, and “Sunny Afternoon,” by The Kinks. Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Nina Simone also get a hearing. Hirayama glories in being mindful of every moment in his life. We only get to learn more about his past through a series of unexpected encounters.