Perfect Days.

The photographs above are a sampling of the public toilets in Tokyo.

From the New York Times:

“Perfect Days” — which was Japan’s entry to the Oscars in the international feature category, and landed a nomination — started life when its director, Wim Wenders, was approached about working on a project that would elevate the profile of Tokyo’s pristine public toilets. He proposed a narrative feature, and the film was born.

“Perfect Days” is currently in theaters in North America ( it will be available in a few weeks on major streaming platforms) and is one of the five nominees for Best International Film at the Oscars.

Koji Yakusho won the best actor award at Cannes this summer.

It is one of the best pieces of art I have experienced in that it takes you everywhere by not taking you anywhere.

This work is probably the best in decades by the legendary Wim Wenders who has the eye of a photographer and the soul of forever. We see him here working at peak form combining with Kojue Yakusho one of the finest actors ever to make every scene, every gesture (much of the movie is silent or only has a soundtrack) feel so fresh that it is shocking how the ordinary becomes the extra-ordinary.

It is movie where nothing seems to happen in that the movie repeats the ritual of every day in the life of a toilet cleaner living by himself.

He gets up. Brushes his teeth. Gets dressed. Gets a coffee from a vending machine. Gets into his truck. Cleans toilets. Has the same lunch at a park where he takes a photograph. Cleans toilets. Goes to a public bath to wash himself. Goes to dinner at the same place. Reads a book. Goes to sleep.

Again and again.

On weekends the work is replaced by laundry, a book store and a dinner at a bar.

It is Zen.

As a movie.

If you take two minutes to watch this official trailer it encapsulates the rhythm and mood of the film.

What makes the movie remarkable despite what may be the absence of a plot, special effects, or fast action is that the viewer begins to sense that this is unlike anything they have seen and we become aware that every day is special in its own way even if it seems like every other day.

Its about learning to see. About the movement of trees. The play of light. The rustle of wind and the connection between humans that do not need words. It is so differently paced that it will take your breath away.

It is about being increasingly sensitive to a finer shade of differences.

A judicious surrender to the force of opposing tendencies.

A secular grace of intense feeling.

It reminds us to see around us and to live deeply in the moment. To find happiness in the crevices of every day versus looking for it elsewhere at another time.

"Repetition as such, if you live it as repetition, you become the victim of it. If you manage to live it in the moment, as if you've never done it before, it becomes a whole different thing".

"Next time is next time. Now is now”.

It is also about the loss that comes from the digital world as we see the main character use an analog camera, chemical film, a flip phone, cassette tapes and paperback books in hyper modern Tokyo.

And the music is extra-ordinary…here is the soundtrack:

To get as sense of the art, craft, excellence and attention to detail and feeling spend a little time at the official website (scroll around and click on index). It is one of the best online experiences that will inspire every artist, creative, marketer, designer, agency, brand…anyone.

Click here or here: https://www.perfectdays-movie.jp/en/ or right click on the image below to begin the experience

If you have ever wondered about the creative process one could do no better than watch the video below on Wim Wenders revealing how a movie about toilets led to an actor led to a character led to Zen which led to Leonard Cohen which led to the music selection…

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Here are some fragments from reviews of the movie

NPR:

Dealing with life's limitations is the theme of Perfect Days, the latest movie by Wim Wenders, the venerable German director for whom Ozu has long been an idol. Shot entirely in Tokyo — in Japanese — this elegant, sentimental fable is Wenders' best fiction feature in decades. Although it flirts with glibness, Perfect Days asks questions about how to live in the face of need, loneliness and disappointment.

We twice hear the song "House of the Rising Sun," the old folk tune lamenting a life ruined by time spent in a house of ill repute. Yet the movie itself is no lament. Wenders once dreamed of being a priest, and here he nudges us toward transcendence. Constantly showing us daybreak over Tokyo, he reminds us that the true house of the rising sun is the world. But rather than bemoan the ways that the world is dark and disappointing, the film suggests that we find and appreciate the transient beauty around us. This may not make our days perfect, but it will make them better.

Time:

The idea, maybe, is that in seeking a comfortable closure—to a song, to a movie, to a random day—we’re looking for the wrong thing. That’s what Perfect Days, its title borrowed from one of the most beautiful songs Lou Reed ever wrote, is about. We seek meaning in everyday life, not realizing that life every day is the meaning.

Try to see it.

You will come away different.