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Perfect Days film image; happy people on bench looking at sky

Perfect Days

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Widely acclaimed as Wim Wenders’ best (fiction) film since his glory days in the 1980s, Perfect Days is a humanist character study steeped in the director’s admiration for the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu and, as British critic Mark Kermode suggested, an exercise in mindful moviemaking. The great Japanese actor Koji Yakusho (Shall We Dance; Cure; Tokyo Sonata) stars as Hirayama, whose menial work cleaning public toilets is off-set by his rich interior life; his appreciation for music (Lou Reed; The Kinks; Van Morrison), literature (Patricia Highsmith; Faulkner) and nature.

Mindfulness, as a movie.

Mark Kermode

In its polite and unassuming way, the film advocates not just a new way of looking, but also a new way of living.

Wendy Ide, The Observer

The director has crafted a film of deceptive simplicity, observing the tiny details of a routine existence with such clarity, soulfulness and empathy that they build a cumulative emotional power almost without you noticing.

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Director

Wim Wenders

Cast

Koji Yakusho, Yumi Asô, Tokio Emoto, Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura, Min Tanaka

Credits
Country of Origin

Japan/Germany

Year

2023

Language

In Japanese with English subtitles

Awards

Best Actor, Cannes, Japan Academy Film Prize; Best Director, Japan Academy

Nominee: Best International Film, Academy Awards

19+
123 min

Book Tickets

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Credits

Screenwriter

Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki

Cinematography

Franz Lustig

Editor

Toni Froschhammer

Production Design

Towako Kuwajima

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