When German director Wim Wenders announced his latest inspiration — Tokyo’s public toilets — journalists in his homeland “treated it like a joke,” yet the film “Perfect Days” has already received an Oscar nomination.
“Toilets are the opposite of culture” in Europe, the arthouse legend told AFP in an online video interview. However, in Japan, where the film is set, “that is not the case”.
The film’s quiet protagonist is a janitor who keeps a set of toilets in downtown Tokyo, constructed by prominent architects, pristine.
He is precise in both his profession and his routines, but as time passes, the complexities of his situation become more apparent, sparking reflections about urban seclusion, community, and getting older.
Wenders stated that his reviewers had “realised how much this film is not about toilets”.
Toilets contribute to a unique Japanese welcome culture. and a sense of respect for the fundamental human need that we all share.”
“Perfect Days” is a finalist for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards on March 10, following Koji Yakusho’s Best Actor win at Cannes.
It’s another diverse subject for Wenders, 78, whose cult works include the drifter drama “Paris, Texas” and documentaries like “Buena Vista Social Club”.
In 2020, the German was “heartbroken” to discover how “the sense of the common good had really suffered in the pandemic” with garbage scattered throughout Berlin parks.
Then Koji Yanai, son of Uniqlo’s multibillionaire founder, got in touch.
He invited Wenders to view his toilet remodeling project in the hopes of inspiring a series of short nonfiction films.
After visiting several of the 17 facilities, including one with translucent cubicles that became opaque when the door is locked, the director decided to shoot a full-length film.
“I realised there was a bigger story to tell,” he remarked, impressed by the “sense of responsibility” in Japan.
Tokyo story
Each year, countries submit one film to the Oscars’ Best International Feature category, and “Perfect Days” marks Japan’s first entry by a non-Japanese director.
Wenders, who has never won an Oscar despite three nominations for his documentaries, co-wrote the script with leading advertising creative Takuma Takasaki.
The shot was completed swiftly, in about a fortnight, and the pair kept the conversation short to help with the language barrier.
“The main language in movies is still the eyes,” Wenders explained.
His first assignment was to survey significant locales, including the protagonist Hirayama’s humble home in the shadow of the futuristic Skytree broadcast tower.
Hirayama’s daily treks to public baths and underground restaurants after driving home from work via Tokyo’s spaghetti intersections are as integral to the film as the toilets he cleans.
“It’s the only city I know where everything is on top of each other, and I like that so much,” Wenders said in an interview.
The director has already worked in the city, with 1985’s “Tokyo-Ga” paying homage to cinematic maestro Yasujiro Ozu, and stated it would be a “dream come true” to do so again.
Next up could be an unwritten project set in both Tokyo and space, but at the age of 78, “every movie I do will eliminate others I can do”.
“When I was young, I thought I had a countless number of movies in me, and now I know I’ve got to be very careful.”
‘Monk in training’
“Perfect Days” allowed Wenders to exhibit a “appreciation of Japanese culture that I hadn’t been able to express before”.
describing example, “komorebi” is a Japanese word describing the quality of light as it filters through the trees, which Hirayama captured on film during his lunch breaks.
Wenders was delighted that there is a name to describe these “beautiful little spectacles we see on the wall, or the floor.”
That, he believes, reflects a “appreciation of the small things we take for granted, or don’t even see”.
Some reviewers have argued that Hirayama’s life is overly romanticised, although the role benefited Yakusho.
The actor told AFP that the sophisticated toilet-cleaning techniques he acquired reminded him of “the job of a monk in training.”
Hirayama’s regular activities, such as watering his saplings, buying vending machine coffee, and listening to cassette music in the car, all conveyed lessons.
“When the film was finished, I felt some envy watching Hirayama finding real, small joys in various things,” Yakusho, the director, remarked.
“Thinking it might be a very good thing to look up at the sky and take a few deep breaths in the morning when I come out my front door, I sometimes remind myself to do that.”