Best of 2024/ Perfect Days

Directed by Wim Wenders

A highly anticipated return to fiction feature filmmaking from Wim Wenders, Perfect Days takes the writer-director to Tokyo to tell a story celebrating the hidden joys and minutiae of Japanese culture.

Winner of the Best Actor award at Cannes 2023, Koji Yakusho stars as Hirayama, a contemplative middle-aged man who lives a life of modesty and serenity, spending his days balancing his job as a dutiful caretaker of Tokyo’s numerous public toilets with his passion for music, literature and photography. As we join him on his structured daily routine, a series of unexpected encounters gradually begin to reveal a hidden past that lies behind his otherwise content and harmonious life.  

Combining a refreshingly unstereotypical depiction of the Japanese capital with a soundtrack comprised of iconic hits from the 60s and 80s, this is a subtle, shimmering and ultimately life-affirming reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. Japan’s entry for Best International Film at the 2024 Academy Awards.

 

Best of 2024 – our team says:

Just as Hirayama repeats his daily routine, I could watch this film on repeat. (I saw it multiple times on release.)

Gentle, joyful, heartbreaking, and made with a real lightness of touch.

 

(image ©MasterMindLtd)

This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy 

Duration:
125 minutes

Languages:
Japanese

Subtitles:
Full English

Country of origin:
Germany and Japan

Year of production:
2023

CAP- Caption Subtitled, are English language subtitles that are embedded into the screening, this includes a written description of sounds or audible components.

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