Perfect Days is a meditative exercise following the peaceful life of toilet cleaner Hirayama. First premiering at Cannes in 2023 where it won Best Actor for Koji Yakusho, 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 Yakusho about portraying someone who has reached ultimate peace through nonverbal moments.

Jillian Chilingerian:Hi, it is so nice to meet you! I first want to talk about stepping into a character who seems to be so content with where he is in life and has removed the pressures and struggles of the everyday. How were you able to find that and tap in?
Koji Yakusho: When I was acting as Hirayama, I just really focused on every moment to make sure that I was just working and cherishing every moment that I had in that context. That’s really how he lives his every day, so whether he’s just eating or bathing, he has an immense amount of gratitude for whatever he’s doing. I think that’s what gives him the richness in life.

Jillian Chilingerian: That is something I took from the film about being present in those little moments in the day. He has his routine that informs us a lot about him without him having to speak or be explicit about it. What was the process of connecting or telling the story of this character through nonverbal actions?
Koji Yakusho: This film is all about portraying one human’s life on screen without a filter and so as just one person and being on camera, we somehow get this experience of who he is. For me not having any lines or very little lines was not a burden at all in that sense. I just knew that I had to completely embody and live as him for this film. Although having fewer lines, means there’s less work to do with memorizing lines, so that was fun for me as well.

Jillian Chilingerian: In addition to there being not a lot of lines, I love your facial expressions, we can tell from reflection to sadness, to happiness to joy, where you’re sensing nature and everything around you. How did you figure out where to inject those emotions that aren’t really on the page, going back to living as this character every moment?
Koji Yakusho: When I first read the script, I found that in the first half, there really weren’t any lines at all and so I wondered how we were going to avoid boring the audience. Then I realized that it almost feels like this person can’t speak, so the audience, when they watch they’re going to wonder when is he going to speak or when something’s gonna happen. There’s a bit of suspense there, especially when I saw the edit for the first time, I found myself on the edge of my seat, and in a way, wondering when something was going to happen. In the script, there was no sort of emotion or smiling described, or written. Every day when he gets up and goes outside to look up at the sky and smile every day, and so, in the script, there are also no angry moments described, but when, his young colleague doesn’t show up, and that that shift becomes a very difficult task for him. He gets the most angry in the entire film and so, in that way, I think we were able to portray a man who doesn’t feel so much like a monk in training or something like that, but more of a relatable human character.

Jillian Chilingerian: I was on the edge of my seat. I do love a slow burn, so I was fully into a kind of anticipation of how his life goes. Tokyo itself feels like a character as we go through all these different restrooms that were so unique in this distinct architecture that they almost felt like characters to be constantly returned to. He is someone that can see and hear things that a lot of people because they’re so busy and they’re so rushed, are blocking out. How were you informed by the environments within the film?
Koji Yakusho: In a way living in a big city like Tokyo for most people, things enjoying the sunshine is a secondary experience, but for him, he’s sensitive to that. The sunlight and the trees, he has this coexistence with those things. Even with homeless people normally, you know, people just pass them by and don’t see them but Hirayama does, he doesn’t necessarily converse with the homeless man but he feels him and there’s some version of communication that’s happening.

Jillian Chilingerian: Thank you so much for answering all my questions, this was one of my favorite films of 2023, and your performance specifically really moved me.
Koji Yakusho: Thank you very much.

Perfect Days is currently playing in select theaters.
You can read our review of Perfect Days here.