Living here in Hong Kong for so many years, I’ve seen many changes to this place — some for the better and some for perhaps not. One thing that has changed for the better though is our public toilets. When I first arrived, using one would warrant wearing a hazmat suit. Like most foreigners here, if I needed to go to the toilet, I headed towards the nearest 5-star hotel and used theirs. Even the toilets in our shopping malls weren’t exempt from the stench and lakes of urine on the floor. And forget about using a toilet in one of our subway stations. They didn’t have any for the public to use. Thankfully, the situation has much improved in recent years. Shopping mall operators have upped their game (although some malls have done a better job than others), our subway operator has installed toilets in many of its stations (although they, too, vary in cleanliness), and The Hong Kong Toilet Association now publishes an annual report of our city’s best and worst public loos. All this attention to cleanliness is probably related to the efforts in Tokyo to improve its public facilities. The Tokyo Toilet Project manages 17 public facilities in the city’s Shibuya district. Local and international architects were invited to create new buildings that combine all the latest in high tech function, hygiene and privacy with designs that blend in with their surroundings. The results are impressive. Why am I going on about toilets when I should be talking about movies, you ask? That’s because Tokyo’s toilets feature prominently in German director, Wim Wenders’ (WINGS OF DESIRE; PARIS, TEXAS) latest film, PERFECT DAYS.

The story follows Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho/役所 広司, SHALL WE DANCE?), a dedicated cleaner for the Tokyo Toilet Project. A gentle man of few words, Hirayama wakes up six days a week before the sun comes up, puts on his work uniform, grabs his tools of the trade, buys a can of coffee from the vending machine outside his tiny home located in the shadow of the Tokyo Skytree, and heads off in his van to Shibuya where he spends his day mopping and scrubbing the toilets to hygienic perfection. In the evenings, he can be found at the local onsen where he washes up and enjoys the hot bath before dining a local eatery where he enjoys a quiet meal alone. When he gets back home, he sets up his futon on his tatami floor, pulls out a novel and reads a bit before going to sleep. The next day, Hirayama starts it all over again but he greets each morning with a smile. One day, his peaceful life gets shaken up when a visitor from his past arrives at his door.

I wrote in a recent review that a film is supposed to show, not tell. Here, Wenders takes “show” to the extreme. PERFECT DAYS has very little dialogue; in fact, minutes go by without anyone saying anything. All there is for much of the film is watching Hirayama carrying out his duties diligently. It works effectively well as we get to know the man through his actions rather than through his words.

Yakusho is absolutely brilliant here and while it’s no surprise that the film was nominated for an Oscar, it’s a shame that he wasn’t nominated too. (He did take home the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival where the film premiered last May.) The actor speaks volumes with just his eyes and a slight smile, which the director captures so adeptly. Wenders and co-writer Takuma Takasaki take their time unfolding their tale (i.e., this film is not for the impatient) but it’s a richly rewarding experience as we get to understand Hirayama a little better. For one, he’s got awesome taste in music, listening to his cassette tapes of Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Van Morrison, Nina Simone and others while driving from toilet to toilet. We’re also given a tiny peek into his backstory, which could probably be another movie in itself. Fortunately, Wenders and Takasaki leave it at just a peek where we can only speculate on what it could be.

PERFECT DAYS has been playing Hong Kong for a few weeks now. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do. If I had seen it last year, it would have made my list of Favourite Films of 2023. As a film, it’s pretty close to perfect.

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