Perfect Days

Koji Yanai invited Wim Wenders to Tokyo to see The Tokyo Toilet, 17 public toilets in Shibuya redesigned by architects. Producers expected a short film or shorts; Wenders chose a feature. The shoot took 17 days. The 4:3 ratio and the hero’s name are nods to Ozu; Hirayama comes from Tokyo Story and An Autumn Afternoon. He photographs komorebi, the light filtered through leaves, on film; his dreams arrive in black and white at each day’s end; and on a paper left in a toilet stall he keeps a long game of tic-tac-toe going with someone he never sees. At Cannes, Koji Yakusho won best actor and the film took the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, an independent jury there. The Japan Academy named Wenders director of the year and Yakusho best actor. Japan sent it to the international feature category at the 96th Academy Awards and it was nominated, the first work by a non-Japanese director Japan has submitted. After release, interest in the Shibuya toilets rose and the city began running toilet tours. A good fit if you want to watch which part of a day changes when it repeats a second and a third time. Not for anyone waiting for Hirayama’s past to be spelled out; it is largely confined to the scene with his sister.