Film Review: Wim Wenders' Perfect Days offers a masterclass in appreciating life's little beauties

Koji Yakusho is almost hypnotic in the lead role, winning Best Actor at Cannes for his portrayal of Hirayama.

Koji Yakusho is Hirayama, a Tokyo-based janitor, and Arisa Nakano plays his niece in ‘Perfect Days’.

• Perfect Days
• ★★★★☆
• Cinema release

Koji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, a Tokyo-based janitor, in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days (PG), the early stages of which establish the rhythm of Hirayama’s daily routine.

Employed to clean Tokyo’s public toilets, Hirayama is meticulous in his work, at times using a toothbrush winkle out those hard-to-reach specks of dirt that would be invisible to those less devoted to the cause. 

But all work and no play makes Hirayama a dull boy, and when the opportunity allows, he’s happy to soak up those moments of fleeting beauty that the busy city occasionally affords. 

When his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) arrives at his tiny flat, having run away from home, Hirayama’s rhythm is suddenly knocked out of kilter.

Can his Zen-like serenity survive the onslaught of Niko’s restless energy? 

Written by Takuma Takashi and Wim Wenders, with Wenders directing, Perfect Days offers a masterclass in everyday philosophy as Hirayama quietly goes about his business of appreciating every moment, and detail, of what might otherwise be a monotonous existence. 

Koji Yakusho is almost hypnotic in the lead role (he won Best Actor at Cannes for his portrayal of Hirayama), his placid forbearance contrasting sharply with the exuberance of Arisa Nakano and that of Tokio Emoto, who plays Hirayama’s feckless colleague Takashi.