Perfect Days at Perth Festival

Kôji Yakusho (as Hirayama) and Arisa Nakano (as Niko)
Photo Credit: Perfect Days, ©2023 Master Mind Ltd

It was another gorgeous evening in Perth at the UWA Somerville Theatrette under the pines as my friend and I enjoyed a pizza from Charlies on site while we waited for the Japanese movie Perfect Days to begin. 

The main character Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) has a simple life in Tokyo – he is a toilet cleaner and every day his routine is very similar.

He wakes up – gets ready for work, fights the traffic, has a busy day, returns home, eats dinner, goes to bed and wakes up to do it all over again.

He seems very content with his routine – its the little things in his day that spark him up and make him smile.

The age old question of how to be happy is a recurring theme that raises its head (in the background) whilst watching this movie.

The divide between his days with the use of black and white flashing / patterned imagery (depicting his dreams whilst sleeping) was an interesting aspect of the movie – helping to delineate between his different days.  

Perfect Days is a very chilled out movie – at just over 2 hours, akin to the main character in the movie – taking delight in its simplicity and the basic pleasures (Hirayama eating out, or greeting someone he knows at a restaurant) and passions in his life – of books and music and nature photography.

There are a few light laughs along the way –  brief interactions between people, or Hirayama showing bemusement at something that he has observed, or pure enjoyment of his meal prepared by a friendly stall / restaurant owner.

As Lou Reed in his song of the same title sang: 

Just a perfect day
Drink Sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark
We go home

Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later, a movie too
And then home ...

And as a favourite song of the main character in this movie, we take a leaf out of what makes us happy – and it could quite well be the simple things in life. Whether it be having a picnic in the park or watching a movie. 

Movie goers who enjoy a reflective and mellow movie on the simple things in life will enjoy Perfect Days by Director Wim Wenders.

Wenders has directed an extensive list of films during his career. Of note, the script this time has been written in conjunction with Takuma Takasaki in a co-production between Japan and Germany.

Perfect Days is on at UWA Somerville as part of Lotterywest Perth Festival Films till Sunday 21 January.

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