It seems nearly impossible for a director from the West to shoot Tokyo from anything other than a tourist’s perspective. Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void are seen as the two biggest offenders in this regard, with the Japan Times review of the latter opening with the pithy claim that: “if Lost in Translation is the film you’d make when all you know about Japan are the pampered press junkets at Shinjuku 5-star hotels, then Enter the Void is what you would make if you never got beyond the Roppongi pub-crawl.” In short, Tokyo’s tourist traps prove too arresting for foreigners, and very rarely can a grounded perspective be brought on screen.

Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Japan’s surprise submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, is the rare effort from an international filmmaker that feels lived-in, the 78-year-old German proving adept at taking audiences off the beaten tourist tracks. If Coppola and Noé take you on whistlestop tours of luxury hotels and seedy nightclubs, Wenders’ quiet character study may catch you off guard, traversing the country’s capital via its public toilets, resisting every visual cliché in its depiction of this oft-photographed city. It’s the most commendable aspect of his Cannes-feted effort, which I otherwise found lacking compared to other critics, who have found this to be one of the richest works in the director’s career, which now spans more than 50 years. 

The issue isn’t with the lead Kôji Yakusho, whose Best Actor win at Cannes speaks more to his ability to communicate a silent humanity within an underwritten character than anything particularly groundbreaking with the performance itself. He plays Hirayama, an aging cleaner perfectly content with his mundane job at the Tokyo Toilet Project, living a simplistic existence defined by a routine that’s never ruptured even during unexpected life events. Hirayama is a man of few words, but it’s easy to see Wenders’ affection for someone he views as one of society’s unsung heroes, a figure who silently gets on with his life and finds pleasure in the things we take for granted, even if it’s just playing an old cassette tape in the car. He’s a warm, welcoming presence, largely through gestures alone. He’s also one of the most uninteresting figures you could think to craft an entire character study around. 

Perfect Days is a film about embracing the small joys in life and aims to communicate this entirely via the vessel of Hirayama, a character drawn deliberately thin to avoid unveiling any semblance of personality that could complicate him to the audience. There is an underlying melancholy to the simplicity of his humdrum, near-solitary existence, and the at-arms-length relationship with his wider family, which is left largely under-examined. Instead, the focus seems to be entirely on depicting him as the ultimate wholesome protagonist, a depiction that is entirely a byproduct of not affording him any depth, hoping the cyclical showcase of how he approaches his daily routine will suffice in this department. Without anything to latch onto in the characterisation department, this never transcends above the mundane, even if there are superficial joys in seeing these unsung corners of Tokyo onscreen, or a variety of vintage needle drops, from Patti Smith to the inevitable use of the Lou Reed track that (almost) gives the film its title. 

However, even that song – Perfect Day – is overused in media, its utilisation here largely invoking memories of it being used more powerfully elsewhere, most notably in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. The fact Wenders, nothing if not a distinctive filmmaker, can’t put his own stamp on this needle drop is symptomatic of his lead’s lack of commanding identity. Even as you’re spending time with him, his lack of presence makes it particularly easy for the mind to wander elsewhere.  

Rating:

Written by Alistair Ryder

_{View of the Arts is a British online publication that chiefly deals with films, music, and art, with an emphasis on the Asian entertainment industry. We are hoping our audience will grow with us as we begin to explore new platforms such as K-pop / K-music, and Asian music in general, and continue to dive into the talented and ever-growing scene of film, music, and arts, worldwide.}