There is a specific type of Japanese Cinema which tends to focus more on character study and atmosphere rather than telling a traditional storyline, a genre of which directors like Hirokazu Koreeda excel in. At a glance you can tell just from the movie poster the kind of movie it’s going to be: you look and think, “Ah, this is going to be one of those introspective and ponderous movies which follow characters along on their mundane everyday doings", and such was the 2023 Wim Wenders film “Perfect Days”.
Koji Yakusho stars as a quiet man named Hirayama who lives each day exactly the same. he wakes to the sound of the neighbor sweeping, He waters his plants. He dresses, gets a can of coffee from a vending machine and goes to his job.
At this stage in his life, Hirayama is working as a Restroom Maintenance man, going to various locations throughout his day and cleaning the restrooms with care and efficiency. Even in this he follows a regular pattern, and as we soon see through repeated days, rarely strays form the same beats over and over.
Evenings are eating dinner at a hole in the wall eatery and then relaxing at the public bath. Even on weekends his routine never changes, doing his laundry, piacking up photos and buying a new used book, going to the local pub where he is a beloved regular.
We follow Hirayama trhough his days and see the colorful people that pass through his life- the slacker teenager Takashi he is paired with on jobs (Tokio Emoto in one of his most irritating roles yet!) who makes Hirayama’s job that much harder…
The vibrant punky teenage girl Aya (Aoi Yamada, last seen in “First Love”) who, though brought along because Takashi is trying to date her, ends up being more impressed by this old man and his vintage cassettes of American legends….
His rambunctious niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) who runs away from home and decides to stay with her eccentric uncle, shaking up his daily routine until her mother Keiko (Yumi Aso) can come to pick her up….
Sayuri Ishikawa (!) as the bar mama at the izakaya that Hirayama frequents...and whom he has innocent feelings for, and her ex-husband Tomoyama (Tomokazu Miura) whom he eventually meets some time down the road...
There are also other minor characters who seem to appear mostly as color in his humdrum days, like the harried OL (Mijika Nagai) he sees at the park every day during lunch... 
Or the blink-and-you'll-miss her appearance of Tamae Ando as a newbie cleaner assigned to help Hiarayama, LOL
These and more are all faces and characters that pass through Hirayamas’ life, and at times you expect their appearances to have some profound effect on his life and outlook, but by the film’s conclusion, we see Hirayama as pretty much the same man we met at the beginning.
There are several scenes which note the inevitability of change, with someone winsomely sighing “If only things could stay the same”. I wondered if it was going to show Hirayama reflecting badly to things when they change: stores close, buildings are torn down, acquaintances you’ve known your whole life get sick, people disappear from your life, etc, but by the show’s end, he seems mostly unfazed.
Then I thought about the title and I thought, perhaps, the message was that despite its ups and downs, surprises and pitfalls, ultimately, every moment of life is important, each day is meant to be cherished. Every day is a “Perfect day”.
