‘Perfect Days’ — Phenomenal and Philosophical. A Film Review
If ‘Perfect Days’ was set in India, would it be so perfect? was the first question that popped into my head. For the uninitiated, ‘Perfect Days’ is a 2023 film directed by Wim Wenders that portrays the daily life of Hirayama, a toilet cleaner by profession, set in Japan.
In our country, with its notorious casteist culture, cleaning professionals are looked down on and discriminated against extremely. With the kind of caste-based purity and pollution notions, I think a protagonist like Hirayama would have to be much more strong-hearted to overcome the internalisation and externalisation of ‘dirty worker’ labels attached to his job. Hirayama is fully content with his life.
His daily life begins with waking up in his purple-lit room, brushing his teeth, watering his plants, drinking a coffee from the nearby vending machine, driving to work listening to his favourite niche musicians.
Then he goes from toilets to toilets, scrubbing the urinals, washing the basins, removing the waste, mopping the floor etc. He goes for lunch at the park, looking at his favourite tree, silently greeting both the usual and new faces, cleaning again, then going home, cycling to the public bath for a soapy bath, then the library, the bar for the daily drink, then reading a book, and then sleeping to wake up and repeat. One would think it couldn’t be more boring, but every shot is so beautifully set. And even within the repetition come new nuances of incidents, interesting people, and small things that bring much joy.
This cinema takes away any negative connotations of the words — ‘monotony’ and ‘mundane’. It profoundly paints the beauty of a daily routine, with one activity ending to pave the way for the next. As it is, it is a happy movie with no conflicts or convolutions. One can shut off the brain and watch it. But one can’t also not think of the phenomenal philosophical question, “Why do we live?” “What do we want in life?” Isn’t it happiness and peace that we ultimately seek?
Hirayama has truly found happiness here. That happiness is very much distinct from pleasure — merely consumerist pleasure or pleasure from fame. It comes from within, not what the people around him assign to him.
In a scene, he finds a kid stranded in the toilet and crying for his mother. He gently takes the kid’s hand and walks him out, looking for his mother. The mother finds the kid, scolds him for wandering about, and also very notably wipes his hands with a wet tissue. The very hands were safely held by Hirayama, who is only a ‘toilet cleaner’ in the eyes of the mother. But Hirayama doesn’t flinch for a second; he is only happy that the kid is reunited with his mother, and he smilingly waves back as the kid waves at him. While one may go into a spirited political discussion about rights and wrongs, I was moved as the cinema only valued Hirayama’s self-perception of himself as a dignified human being who loves his job, daily life, music, books, and silent life.
Hirayama talks very rarely, only on a few occasions, and that too with precise words. He pays attention; he takes time to appreciate every tiny thing, even the shadows of rustling leaves and shy crowns of canopies. Much can be written about Perfect Days, but nothing would amount to actually watching it and reflecting on what life’s value to you is.
