Oscar Nominee!

In Wim Wenders’ quietly profound Perfect Days, all of life’s beauty is found in the eyes of a man looking up at the first gasps of a Tokyo morning as he sets out on his day. The man is Hirayama, played to perfection by Kōji Yakusho, and he works cleaning toilets in Japan in the most artfully designed public restrooms imaginable. On his commute, he listens to rock and pop music he has lovingly collected on audio cassettes. A magnificent work of minimalism, the film is about these minute moments just as it’s about the most existential parts of life. What could be dismissed as narrow in focus is instead bursting with meaning. Without ever speaking it aloud, the film is about how the art he takes in, and creates himself with a humble camera, provides daily salvation. As we look for our own salvation in life, one can only hope to find such painfully transcendent beauty as Wenders does in Hirayama’s eyes. –Seattle Times

“…this small, unassuming tale turns into the kind of earthshaking character study that reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.”–Rolling Stone