In May this year, Hiroshi Yakusho won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the second actor in the history of Japanese cinema to win this award, the first being Yuya Yanagi, a post-90s actor who won the award for "Nobody Knows".
He won the award for his film "Perfect Day" by German director Wim Wenders, which follows the daily life and work of an uncle who cleans toilets in Tokyo.
In September, Japan announced that it would compete for the Oscars with the film.
At first glance, it is difficult to see that a German director actually made a film about toilets in Tokyo, Japan, which not only won an award in France, but also represented Japan in the 2024 Oscar for Best International Film.
With this curiosity, I finally made this movie through the online platform, striking while the iron was hot, and sharing with you my feelings after watching. It is said that the original intention of the film was the invitation of a Japanese producer, who wanted Wim Wenders to come to Japan to shoot a short art film that showed the beauty of the toilets in Tokyo.
Wim Wenders and Hiroshi Yakusho were deeply influenced by Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu at the Cannes Film Festival. He had a deep love for Japanese art and accepted the invitation.
Not only did he shoot short films, but he also worked with renowned screenwriter Takama Takasaki, and it took him two weeks to create the script for the feature film we see now. The story is simple and plain, telling the day-to-day story of Mr. Hinoki.
Every morning, he was woken up by the sound of a cleaner sweeping the floor, got up to wash, changed into his work clothes with the words "Tokyo Toilet Cleaning" printed on his back, walked to the vending machine outside the door to buy coffee, and drove to his workplace.
On the way to work, he would first take out Lou Reid's ** cassette and travel through the city to the melody of rock music.
As soon as he arrives at the workplace, he begins to clean the toilets, expertly removing garbage, washing toilets, urinals and sinks, and even making a small mirror to ensure that every corner is wiped clean.
In between work, he sits on a bench and enjoys a sandwich, occasionally looking up at the treetops and admiring the dappled light and shadow of the sun shining through the gaps. As soon as he spotted a beautiful view, he would immediately pick up a film camera, shoot it, and smile with satisfaction.
When he finished work, he drove home and **Lou Reed's cassette ** again. When you get home, you change into your daily clothes, leave your dirty clothes and pants at a nearby laundry, then go to a bathhouse to take a sip of wine, then go to a small restaurant to order a Japanese meal, and finally go home to read and sleep.
The next day, repeat these activities again.
In the movie, the character of Hiroshi Yakusho has very few lines, and even in the first 60 minutes of the scene, he does not say a word, but through the change of eyes and expressions, he conveys the calm and alienation of this character from the world around him.
The male protagonist in the movie is a low-class person who cleans toilets, and his daily life includes buying coffee, washing toilets, listening to cassette tapes, shopping for used books, taking street scenes, washing public bathhouses, and drinking roadside wine.
These seemingly mundane daily activities are actually director Wim Wenders' minimalist homage to Yasujiro Ozu, telling the story of why a man only wants to live in his own world.
There are three details in the film that deserve deep consideration, they are the basic points that the director wants the audience to understand and agree with, and they are also the key to understanding why Mr. Hinoki only wants to live in his own world.
He was obsessed with Lou Reed's rock music, and even the English name of the movie "Perfect Day" was taken from his classic masterpiece. Lou Reid has a unique style, often making noise in the front court, while he himself hides in the corner and sings in a low voice.
Lou Reid's ** is full of rebellious spirit, which is fully reflected in his **. When we look at Mr. Hinoki, a taciturn toilet cleaner, we will find that there is a power of still water flowing deep under his peaceful life Xi habits.
Although he lives a mechanical and repetitive life, he also has some behaviors that try to break away from routine. For example, if he peeks at a female white-collar worker sitting on a bench eating a bento box after work, or finds a chess game drawn by a stranger on paper in the toilet, he will follow with his next move and leave it for the stranger who often comes here to use the toilet.
Hidden beneath Mr. Hinoki's calm exterior is a heart longing for freedom, and he blends his throbbing into Lou Reed's rock 'n' roll. The director skillfully conveys to the audience his deep nostalgia for the past through Hinoki's Xi of reading paper books, listening to tapes, and taking pictures on film every night.
The repetition of these Xi, like Lou Reed's songs that Hinoki must listen to while driving, symbolizes his inability to break free from the shackles of the past.
When the audience thinks deeply, they will understand why the director suddenly inserts the role of Mr. Hinoki's niece halfway through the movie, and then gives her to Mr. Hinoki's sister.
The emotional climax of the whole movie is vividly shown in my sister's sentence "Go back and see Dad, he is no longer the same person he used to be", and the movie only uses this very low-key third detail to let the audience understand why Mr. Hinoki is only willing to live in his own world.
As we age, we are increasingly able to live our true selves because we have been hurt enough in this world. In other words, we are not living more and more self-consciously, but because we need this self-protection mechanism to avoid more harm.
In Yasujiro Ozu's film "Post W**e Film", director Wim Wenders uses low-angle cinematography to bring the protagonist back to the memory of family hurt in a small detail, which is also a concrete way for him to pay tribute to Yasujiro Ozu.
Wim Wenders is German, but he has a deep passion for Japanese culture and art, he has filmed Yohji Yamamoto, and because of his love for Yasujiro Ozu, he also made a documentary, In Search of Ozu (1985).
Looking for Ozu poster: "Perfect Day" is an in-depth tribute to Yasujiro Ozu. Wim Wenders not only replicates Ozu's signature tatami perspective, fixed shots, and plain editing in the film, but also digs deep into the emotional core of Ozu's films.
Ozu's films look warm on the surface, but they are actually full of vicissitudes and coldness. Just like in "Tokyo Story", the elderly parents want to go to Tokyo to play, but the children snub them because of their own hardships.
Ozu's callousness lies in the fact that he reveals that each child does have his or her own unspeakable pain, which makes rejection justified, even understandable. Wim Wenders succeeded in incorporating these elements and emotional cores of Ozu into his own films, making "Perfect Day" a work that pays homage to Ozu in depth.
The poster of "Perfect Day" Yasujiro Ozu's filmography reveals the great tragedy hidden behind the trivial things of everyday life with its unique perspective. The theme of his films is to accept loss, to accept separation, to accept cruelty, and only in this way can we live with peace of mind.
This is also the core idea conveyed by the movie "Perfect Day". The niece in the movie leads to the story of Mr. Hinoki, which shows us that although he works at the bottom, he is not born at the bottom.
On the contrary, he has a better family and background, but because of the conflict with his father, he chose the current way of life and became a person who only lives in his own world.
Perfect Day is intrinsically tied to Ozu's style: accept loss, accept separation, accept cruelty, and only then can you move on with your life with peace of mind.
Of course, in addition to these, the audience can also dig out more themes and content from this calm film according to their own viewing Xi, such as from a sociological point of view, you can see the difficult situation of elderly workers; Or from the point of view of political science, see a proletarian who is willing to work, artistically live his life, and so on.
If you can interpret your own preferences or dissatisfactions from other angles, it also proves the uniqueness of "Perfect Day": it does enough subtraction, enough simplicity, but makes the film show an all-encompassing openness.