In 1985’s Tokyo-Ga, he travelled to the city to explore the work of renowned director Yasujirô Ozu. Four years later, he returned to make a portrait of fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, Notebook on Cities and Clothes.
Perfect Days: veteran Japanese actor shines in Wim Wenders’ Tokyo story
Perfect Days: veteran Japanese actor shines in Wim Wenders’ Tokyo story
And then came 1991’s U2-scored futuristic tale Until the End of the World, with a considerable portion shot in Tokyo. It was during the recent Covid-19 pandemic, however, that Wenders felt the urge to return.
“I was homesick for Japan very badly,” he says, and told his wife, Donata, that the moment they were allowed to travel again, Japan was first on the list. Then, out of the blue, he received a letter. “It was strictly an architectural invitation,” he explains.
When Wenders arrived, however, he realised he didn’t want to do any of those things. Instead, he wanted to make a feature, “a film about Tokyo at that moment”.
With the toilets as the backdrop, Wenders suggested a fictional story about a caretaker who diligently works to keep these conveniences clean. “It had to be somebody who symbolised the idea of the common good,” he says.
It was a theme that had been on his mind during the coronavirus pandemic, after witnessing the way people in his home city of Berlin reacted to the lifting of restrictions, which he says was “frankly disastrous”.
“The parks were all destroyed. All public areas were wasted. People came back with a loss of [the] sense of what was common. The common good was a victim of the pandemic.
“In Japan, it was the opposite: the common good was a way to celebrate this social glue. People were still wearing masks and everything was clean, and everything was beautiful.
“And the scooters were all in a line, they were not all over the place and on the sidewalks and stuff. And nobody would throw a cigarette on the floor.”
I’m so happy that some people come out of the film crying and some people really get it
Wim Wenders
Paired with writer Takuma Takasaki, Wenders began to develop the character of Hirayama. A humble, dignified man who takes great pride in his work, he finds joy in simple pleasures, whether cataloguing pictures he snaps of trees or listening to rock music.
His minimalist existence is something Wenders envies. “I have too much of everything in my own life, like everybody else I know, and not enough time. Hirayama was the man I have inside me who has enough of everything and he doesn’t need more. He never has the feeling he misses anything.”
When I meet the 78-year-old Wenders, it’s the day after Perfect Days has premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. We are sitting in a shady hotel garden, the director sporting his trademark blue-rimmed glasses and a T-shirt with an image of a horizon on it.
The reception for the film has been truly warm: “Wenders’ freshest, most rewarding and art house-friendly fiction feature in close on 30 years,” claimed Variety, and audiences alike.
“I’m so happy that some people come out of the film crying and some people really get it,” he says. “And they really get the nature of Hirayama and they understand that. We all have a Hirayama in us and it’d be good sometimes to give him a chance.”
These amazing Japanese toilets will leave you flushed with excitement
These amazing Japanese toilets will leave you flushed with excitement
Sitting a few yards away is the beloved 68-year-old actor Koji Yakusho, who plays Hirayama with gentle precision. Yakusho came to prominence on the international scene in 1996’s Shall We Dance? as the office worker who takes up ballroom dancing. He committed to Perfect Days without seeing a script, simply basing his decision on Wenders’ reputation.
“I am not a cinephile,” Yakusho says. “But I did notice that a lot of young filmmakers in Japan looked up to Wim Wenders. So I would always try to, of course, catch his films. He is a filmmaker who is quite fearless in taking on new challenges.”
Dressed in a purple shirt, trainers and brown trousers, Yakusho is almost cut from the same cloth as his character: quiet, introspective, diligent. He explains that he was taught to clean lavatories by the staff of The Tokyo Toilet project.
“If I can say so myself, I excelled … and they did say that if you ever need a job …” he chuckles. Has he applied his new-found abilities to his own bathroom? “I haven’t put that skill to use at home,” he winks.
What makes Perfect Days so touching, so beautiful, is the way Hirayama is portrayed. Long since separated from his family – although there is reconciliation around the corner – audiences wonder, is he lonely, is he content?
“Hirayama maybe is feeling lonely, but I think through his routine every day being repeated, he is able to escape that solitude,” says Yakusho.
Wenders maintains they shot the film like a documentary, a fleet-of-foot process that never stopped.
“Koji Yakusho had a trailer, of course. But on the last day of the shooting, he said to me, ‘Wim, can I go and see my trailer because I don’t even know what it looks like?’ We never ever went into it. We never gave him time. We kept shooting.
“And we kept shooting so hard that after a while he became Hirayama so much that I said, ‘Instead of rehearsing it, would you allow me to shoot the rehearsal?’ He said, ‘Of course.’ And after a while, we only shot the rehearsals.”
When I next encounter Wenders, it’s at the Zurich Film Festival, a few months after Cannes, where Yakusho won best actor. When they got the call to attend the prize-giving ceremony, Wenders sensed that it would be for his lead.
“I said, ‘There’s only one prize we can win. And that’s best actor. And if that happens, I’m a happy camper. Then I think we have accomplished our film. Because he is the soul of it. This film cannot win anything else. Please remember that.’
“And then the first prize in Cannes was the actor prize. And he got it. And they all looked at me as if I had been a prophet.”
Ever since Cannes, Oscar buzz has been building, and recently it was announced that Perfect Days will be the official Japanese entry in the best international feature category at the 2024 Academy Awards. Wenders admits he’s amazed.
“I didn’t think this could possibly happen,” he says. “It’s a strong year for Japanese cinema. And the fact that they chose a film directed by a German was something that completely took me by surprise.
“But I know what happened is because Koji is so loved in Japan. They chose him to represent, and I’m happy to come along as the director.”
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One of the film’s most delightful elements is the nod to old-school musical formats, particularly cassettes.
“You must know there’s a huge comeback of analogue in Tokyo,” says Wenders. “Young people give everything for a Walkman and pay incredible prices for vintage cassettes.
“The US$120 for the Lou Reed cassette [seen in the film] was the actual price in that shop. It was vintage. You can get new ones cheaper. And there are shops where you can buy cassette equipment, recorders and blank tapes.
“The hottest thing now is [mixed tapes]. People have rediscovered the idea of the compilation.”
Yakusho agrees. “Yeah, that’s happening in Japan. The younger generation are discovering cassette tapes and finding them to actually have better sound. There was a time when I also had lots of cassettes, but over time … I lost them. And I’m regretting that a little bit.”
Matching Hirayama’s love for vintage cassettes is his musical taste. Songs like The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun”, The Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” feature on the soundtrack, succinctly capturing the mood of the film.
Many of the picks were Wenders’ favourites.
“I did ask Takuma, ‘Isn’t it cultural appropriation, if it’s just my favourite music?’ And he said, ‘No, because it just so happens, they’re also mine.’ And we are around Hirayama’s generation. A lot of people in their 70s and 80s built their lives around American and British rock ’n’ roll.
“And then I insisted that we choose one Japanese song [‘Aoi Sakana’ by singer-songwriter Sachiko Kanenobu] from the period. She’s the Janis Joplin of Japan. I love that song. I now have it and it’s one of my favourite LPs and I didn’t even know she existed.”
Yakusho feels Wenders has a “great grasp” of Japanese culture and customs, although “there were moments where he would ask […] if this is weird or genuine or authentic. But really, it was seamless. It didn’t feel strange.” Yakusho pauses for a second. “Oh wait, there is one though,” he says, pointing out the way Hirayama tends his plants every day – another of his routines.
His use of an orange-glowing heater, however, was suspect. “If you were seen nurturing plants that way the police would probably come, thinking you’re trying to grow marijuana because that’s how it’s done in Japan!”
For Wenders, the experience has been such a delight – not least because his film arrived in Cannes alongside such other strong local titles as Monster, by Hirokazu Koreeda, and Kubi, by Takeshi Kitano.
“I’m happy that there’s a new rise in Japanese movies,” says Wenders. “I know a lot of young directors and I have friends among them.”
Above all, Perfect Days is the ideal advertisement for Shibuya and its superior toilets.
“Please, do come to Shibuya in Tokyo,” implores Yakusho. “They might not be completely pristine at times but if you wait, they will be, because they’re cleaned three times a day! Not by me … but there will be a Hirayama-san for sure.”
Perfect Days opens in Hong Kong cinemas on January 25.
