Perfect Days: Awarded at Cannes, This Melancholy Walk Through Japan Will Blow Your Mind

The feature film Perfect Days, which opens in theaters this Wednesday, tells the story of a man who seeks happiness in the simple and highly structured everyday life. Hirayama days? Cleaning public toilets in Tokyo, listening to music, reading books and photographing trees. As a result of unexpected meetings, his past will reappear…

A poignant and poetic reflection on the search for beauty in everyday life, Perfect Days, directed by the great Wim Wenders, is the work that won the prestigious Koji Yakusho acting prize at the recent Cannes Film Festival.

“With this film, I wanted to say that there is enormous wealth in simple life”Wim Wenders explains to us on the Croisette. “It’s a huge asset if you live day by day, if you’re in the moment. The ability to live in the moment is something that’s becoming more and more difficult, more and more rare.”

“We all have too many things, too much entertainment, too many things, too many messages”Continues German film director, Palme d’Or in 1984 in Paris, Texas. “It’s important to live in the moment, just reading a book, listening to a song, watching something or being in front of someone. It’s important not to get out of the way all the time. And the hero of Perfect Days is a man who chose an easy life instead of a privileged life. A life he’s very happy with. Even though he has a work routine, he does it every day as if it were the first time.”

Actor Koji Yakusho believes this “If there were more Hirayamas in the world, there would probably be a higher rate of happiness”Full of praise for Wim Wenders. “What he’s really interested in is trying to paint the most accurate portrait possible of the most thorough characters. And through that, it allows you to have some idea of ​​the era, the society in which the character is developing. .”

“In general, principals are willing to explain strongly at any cost, in many words”Yakusho concludes. “Wim Wenders manages to build a very powerful world with relatively little talking. I found that very inspiring.”

Perfect Days, in theaters November 29, 2023.