Perfect Days is a lowkey slice-of-life drama about Hirayama(Kōji Yakusho) a bathroom cleaner in Tokyo, seemingly content with his simple, disciplined, ritualistic life. The film follows him across several days of his routine.
Yakusho is on screen for the entire runtime and in close-up for at least a third so his task is monumental and he does well conveying a kind of quiet, monastic, compassion but the sparseness of the script and the character's unflinching disposition render the character, at times, unrealistically twee and/or contrived. Much is implied but nothing is explored, there's clearly a resistance to engaging with the character and subject only to a particular depth. The supporting cast is limited and are relegated to only a few scenes, some do well, some like Tokio Emoto as Takashi Hirayama's co-worker seem to be from a totally different movie.
The film looks great, the soundtrack is full of classic rock bops, but it all feels very curated, very constructed. Compare this to the tonally similar but much more successful Paterson and the clear difference is in genuinely exploring the character and delving into real human emotion and experience, even if subtle.
I don't necessarily believe Hirayama is content with his life the images and sequences are trying too hard to persuade me that this is the case. There doesn't need to be a hidden darkness or trauma revealed but there does need to be authenticity. Its almost a textbook case of show-don't-tell which is storytelling 101.
Beautiful and pleasant but underbaked. Too calculated in its attempt at transcendence to achieve it.
Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.
Rent It.
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