Falling Down
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2004
- Messages
- 4,926
duncan said:Perfect Days
Wim Wenders’ latest, Japanese with subtitles.
Kōji Yakusho is a toilet cleaner in a posh part of Tokyo. The film examines the repetition of his simple life and the joy he gets from his potentially mundane job in forensic detail. Yes it’s one of those arty films where nothing much happens very beautifully.
Yakusho is in his 60s but still handsome, his clothes are supposed to be poor and basic but he looks like he’s modelling for Margaret Howell. He has rather intellectual literary tastes. His flat is a fantasy of old Japan, elegantly austere. Poverty or minimalism? All this seems unlikely for a toilet cleaner; later in the film there are hints as to why it might be somewhat plausible.
He leads a solitary, monk-like existence, with minimal interaction with the rest of the world. Snippets of music punctuate the silence: 60s and 70s rock and soul, mostly predictable (Lou Reed of course) with a couple of wild cards. There is some humour made with his choice of medium, currently achingly trendy cassette tapes. It slightly feels like wish-fulfilment for financially secure middle-aged blokes: abandon all ties, run away from home, live a simple life (in a cave at Siurana?). Perhaps this is what he has done.
A number of women interact with him obliquely. At one point I thought there might be an icky old-guy-cute-young-woman thing about to happen but fortunately Wenders has better taste. The only romantic interest hinted, more realistically, is a not much younger bar owner.
There is no resolution and you might think the whole thing is a two hour shaggy dog story. I really enjoyed it but I'm the kind of person who enjoys a Japanese-German art-house movie.
We watched this last night on Mubi and both loved it. Can’t add anything to Duncan’s accurate and erudite review other than the toilet tours are now available as a tourist tour attraction.