Perfect Days directed by Wim Wenders (Japan/Germany, 2023)
Up until now, my favourite toilet cleaner in popular culture has been Raymond Briggs’ ‘Gentleman Jim’, a cartoon character from 1980 who dreamt of breaking out of his humdrum existence and dead end job. In stark contrast, the character of Hirayama in ‘Perfect Days’, played brilliantly by Kōji Yakusho, is more than content to follow a daily routine that borders on a zen-like ritual as an employee of a Tokyo toilet cleaning company.
It helps that the facilities he works in are in a series of incredible buildings commissioned by the Nippon Foundation in 2018. This unique architectural project was coordinated by Yamada Akiko who set out to counter the image of public toilets as “dark, dirty, smelly and scary” places that were best avoided Through unfortunate timing, these buildings were completed around the time that the pandemic struck. Post lockdown, the esteemed German filmmaker Wim Wenders was asked if would be interested in making a documentary to publicise this enlightened initiative. He leapt at the chance but happily decided to turn the film into a work of fiction.
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In part 12 of his illuminating Channel 4 documentary series on The Story Of Film, Mark Cousins focused on notable directors from around the world like John Sayles in the US and Krzysztof Kieslowski in Poland who were prepared to stand up for worthy, though unfashionable, political causes.
