Perfect Days DVD
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. What an antidote to what passes for film these days. What constitutes someone’s perfect day? Among possible choices, cleaning public toilets would hardly seem foremost and yet, this is Hirayama’s choice, the protagonist of Perfect Days.
What comes across, though, is less about the task of cleaning toilets than about Hirayama having found meaning in its ritual, and from it deriving a sense of service, duty, and pride.
Hirayama revels in the small details of existence, and there is something exquisite about his sensibility in drawing pleasure from the seemingly innocuous aspects of his working day: the play of shadows on a wall, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and the germination of seeds from parkland trees, all of which are evident in the rhythm of his daily life. Attentiveness and presence abound in what he sees and does.
Not surprisingly, the director, Wim Wenders, uses him as a counterpoint to other characters who are less at ease in the drama of their own existences. From colleagues (and their partners) to relatives, the audience gains further insight into the infinite contentment Hirayama experiences in simply being, immune to a world of endless distractions.
A wonderful film, reaffirming through its possibilities that meaning and beauty are ever-present, only awaiting realisation.
Rosh
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