Perfect Days is a meditative exercise following the peaceful life of toilet cleaner Hirayama. First premiering at Cannes in 2023, the film has gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature, and now it’s finally being released for audiences to become captivated by the film’s rich architecture and quiet moments. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to talk to the director and co-writer Wim Wenders and co-writer and producer Takuma Takasaki about their collaboration, the meaning of routine, and capturing what it means to be content.

Jillian Chilingerian: It’s so nice to meet both of you. This film made me rethink my life after watching it and things have been looking good since then.
Wim Wenders: Thank you very much. That makes us happy indeed, right there.

Jillian Chilingerian: So I first want to dive into this idea of content and peace and how you captured that into the script.
Wim Wenders: Well, in a way, when we envision the character of Hirayama from the beginning, we think of him as a utopian man. I know that people like this exist in Japan, or maybe have existed more in the past, but I know that there are people with content with what they do and I think my high opinion of that comes from Japanese craftspeople. I know Japanese craftspeople that do sometimes very simple jobs with wood or with clay and they’re extremely content and they’re among the happiest people I’ve ever met in my life. They do simple things with their hands, and they do what they know exactly how to do I felt if our servicemen Hirayama cleans toilets with the same ethics as a craftsperson, then we are on the right track with this film, then we can show a little bit of a utopia that many of us have lost, but remember deep down in ourselves.
Takuma Takasaki: So if you look at Hirayama, I think, at his core, it’s about reducing or eliminating what you don’t need in life to live satisfactorily and to be content with your daily life. The need or the desire for him to do that is shown very gracefully in the film to the point where because that is, how he lives, he is very content and very happy with what he has and he doesn’t need anything else. In the early stages of conceptualizing the script, I kind of entered the day in the life of the toilet cleaner and that person was almost like a monk to me. I was learning every single step of everything during that day, and I was a student of how to service and how to live. I remember sharing that story with them and so that feeling never left of being content with what I do, and how I serve the people.
Wim Wenders: We were inspired by monks and craftspeople.

Jillian Chilingerian: Normally in films, the character is always working towards some type of social status or wealth, and then it causes me as the viewer anxiety. It always looks so easy for them, but this one made me feel really at peace with that idea of what are those things that bring peace where it doesn’t matter what job or what economic status you’re in. Going into his little routine, it feels very observational and documentarian, but in a way, it’s so natural and nonrobotic. How did you construct and figure out what he would be doing?
Wim Wenders: Routine is a key word here and routine in our lives, has a bad connotation, routine is something you’d rather not do and that you’re forced to do, but routine, the way Hirayama uses, it has a whole different idea in it. Routine gives you structure and structure in your life is in itself a good thing. A lot of people suffer from a lack of structure, so if you look at routine as something that gives you a structure, you can then start thinking about routine, giving you pleasure and a framework inside which when you accept the framework, you can be very free to also do other things and see other things. The more you accept structure and routine, the more it does set you free to be your own person and to be happy inside that if you have even managed to turn routine into more like a ritual. One thing that can also almost be sacred for you and is unique because you can do every routine like a good actor learned one thing, do everything as if it was the first time and any craftsman or a service man can do the same any person can do in his life, things that are routine as if it was the first time.
Takuma Takasaki: This is completely unrelated to the film, but recently, my grandmother passed. There are so many steps that you have to do as a family member to get through it. One is the funeral and in Japan, as with maybe other cultures that have a very deep, traditional way of doing things. There were so many processes and steps that I had to go through, but we gathered around and overcame it going through all these steps together by moving physically your body and not just in your head, but gathering around and getting through it made my sort of heart and soul really at that piece and it was conditioned to sort of be in a place that should be. When you look at Hirayama and his routine cleaning these toilets, yes, we’re talking about completely different subject matters here, but I felt like there’s some cleansing also going on within himself, and that he’s in a good place by doing this. Routine is giving pleasure and that feeling of being content with yourself.
Wim Wenders: At one moment in Hirayama’s days, there was a day off. We had seen his routine for several days and all of a sudden he stays in bed because it’s his day. We discussed a little bit with him what Can you do on his day off? I asked him, wouldn’t you clean the tatami? And he said, Oh, yes. Wait a minute, this gives me a good idea. Are you ready to shoot? We said, Yes, we’re ready to shoot and then he said, I need a bucket and an old newspaper. We didn’t know what he was up to, so we gave him the bucket, the water, and the old newspaper, the camera was ready, and we shot. He did something none of us especially none of the Japanese crew expected. He put the bucket in the middle of the room, dipped the newspaper in, and threw all these pieces of wet newspaper on the floor then with the brush started to move these pieces on the floor, and then he put them together and put them in the wastebasket. He said That’s how my grandmother cleaned the tatamis because the paper collects all the dust. It was beautiful.

Jillian Chilingerian: It is such an instinctual movie guided by a lot of listening versus speaking. From a directing standpoint, how that was for you?
Wim Wenders: You can only speak well if you’re able to listen well. Takuma and I had that a little bit as a program when we wrote the script. So for instance, Hirayama lives alone and you realize he’s not his loneliness. He doesn’t associate loneliness with unhappiness and we realize the man who can be alone is also very able to be with others. Hirayama has great social abilities in that he can be alone and can see being lonely as positive almost as a state of bliss. Being able to listen will enable him to also talk and when he says something he rather wants to be essentially doesn’t he’s not into small talk. Listening is essential for being and being alone is essential for being together.
Takuma Takasaki: I agree with Wim, loneliness doesn’t equate to unhappiness. If you really think about it, humans are born Yes, you have a family, but as an individual, you are lonely, so you have to preface the story by saying that, humans are lonely, but that doesn’t mean that you’re unhappy and that there’s happiness that comes from within by even just spending time in isolation or by being lonely. The way that the actor displayed that is, as you saw, beautifully done.
Wim Wenders: Koji is a good listener, and that’s why he’s a good actor.

Jillian Chilingerian: Well, thank you both so much for the time and you’re very in-depth insightful answers. I loved this film and it’s just such a perfect film for us, especially after the last few years with the pandemic and everything to kind of come back together and regroup and reflect on those little moments in our lives that matter and the meaning of peace.
Wim Wenders: Thank you. We did this together and you better take care of your little tree behind you.

Perfect Days is currently playing in select theaters.

You can find our review of Perfect Days here.