---
title: "Perfect Days"
year: 2023
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/perfect-days"
fi1m_id: "perfect-days"
imdb_id: "tt27503384"
tmdb_id: 976893
wikidata_id: "Q117663112"
fi1m_score: 83
critics_score: 82
critics_reviews: 17
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:59.850588+00:00"
region: "EC"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Perfect Days (2023)

Directed by Wim Wenders · 2h 04m · Drama

## Identity

Perfect Days

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/perfect-days
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** perfect-days
- **IMDb ID:** tt27503384
- **TMDB ID:** 976893
- **Wikidata ID:** Q117663112
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27503384/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/976893, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117663112

**Fi1m score: 83** · Critics 82 from 17 reviews

*In a sentence:* Wenders finds enlightenment in a Tokyo public lavatory and, slightly to our annoyance, so did we

> Wim Wenders follows a Tokyo toilet cleaner through a week of near-identical days and, thanks to Koji Yakusho’s almost wordless performance, makes the repetition hold. It is the best fiction film Wenders has made in years, and a little too fond of its hero’s calm.

## Synopsis

Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) cleans public lavatories in Tokyo. He wakes before dawn to the sound of a neighbour sweeping the street, waters the seedlings on his windowsill, buys a can of coffee from the machine outside his door and drives his small van across the city, playing cassettes of old American and British rock. He works alone, or as good as; his young colleague Takashi (Tokio Emoto) turns up late and talks about a girl called Aya (Aoi Yamada). At lunch Hirayama photographs the light through the trees with a film camera. In the evening there is the bathhouse, a bar where Mama (Sayuri Ishikawa) sings, and a paperback in bed.

## Review

Wim Wenders has been to Tokyo before: *Tokyo-Ga*, in 1985, was a documentary in which he went looking for the city Yasujiro Ozu had filmed and mostly failed to find it. *Perfect Days* is what happens when he stops looking and sits still. Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) cleans public lavatories. Wenders and his co-writer Takuma Takasaki watch him do it, day after day, for 124 minutes, and the bet is that a routine shown carefully enough becomes a life. It mostly pays off.

Yakusho says almost nothing. What he has instead is a face that notices things and does not say so: the nod to a child lost in a park, the mirror on a stick he uses to check under a rim, the way he stops with a can of coffee halfway to his mouth because the sky has done something. The film’s whole case, that a man scrubbing lavatories can be at peace and deserve two hours of our attention, rests on him, and he carries it without ever appearing to know he is carrying anything.

Franz Lustig shoots in a squarish 4:3 frame, which keeps the city out of the way and Hirayama’s face in the centre of it, and he shoots the mornings in the thin grey light before the sun has decided. The lavatories themselves, glass and cedar and concrete, each one different, are the only extravagance in the film. Towako Kuwajima’s production design keeps Hirayama’s flat down to a futon, a shelf of cassettes, a shelf of paperbacks and seedlings in a window. Daisuke Iga puts him in blue overalls with THE TOKYO TOILET across the back.

Toni Froschhammer’s editing is the quiet cleverness here. The day repeats, but each repeat is trimmed, so by the fourth morning we know the order of things and are allowed to skip ahead, and any change, a phone call at the wrong hour, a colleague who does not appear, lands like an alarm. That is how the film got us: we had settled into the pattern without noticing, and when it first broke we were more put out than a missed shift should make anyone. There is no composer. The songs Hirayama plays in the van do the work, Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” among them, and Wenders lets each one run long enough that we hear it the way Hirayama does.

What works less well is the young colleague, Takashi (Tokio Emoto), who is late, broke and lovesick, and played at a pitch the rest of the film does not share. Aoi Yamada, as the girl he is chasing, gets one scene in the van with a cassette that is worth more than all of his. The dialogue, when it finally arrives, has a habit of sounding like a card in a gift shop; a line about now being now is repeated as if it were wisdom. And the film’s argument that a poor man can be content is softened by things it tells us about Hirayama in the second half, which we will not describe, except to say that they make his life look less like a fate and more like a decision, and a decision is a smaller thing to celebrate.

Wenders’s best fiction films, [*Paris, Texas*](https://film.one/film/paris-texas) in 1984 and [*Wings of Desire*](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire) in 1987, were about men standing slightly outside their own lives and watching. This is the closest he has come to them in a long time. The debt to Ozu is paid openly: the low camera, the trains, the relative who arrives unannounced and stays, and nobody saying out loud what they feel about it.

What moved us most was the lunch hour. Hirayama sits under the same trees each day and photographs the light through the leaves with a small film camera, and we had not expected to care about a man photographing leaves. We did, because Lustig shows us the light as Hirayama sees it and Yakusho’s face tells us it is the reason he gets up.

It is a PG, and there is nothing in it a child could not see. Whether a child would sit through it is another matter. Watch it on a weekday evening when you have nowhere to be, and do not check the time; Hirayama would not.

*Fi1m score 83, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews for Perfect Days are close to unanimous, and the praise settles in two places. The first is Koji Yakusho, whose near-wordless performance as Hirayama, a Tokyo toilet cleaner at peace with his routine, is called restrained, soulful and rich in interior life by almost every critic who writes about it. The second is Wim Wenders himself, with most critics naming this his strongest fiction film in decades, several noting the debt to Ozu and the care with which Tokyo’s streets, trees and shadows are photographed.

Reservations are few and mild. Time Out finds it warm but a rung below the director’s best work. The Playlist thinks the class commentary is underdeveloped, The Skinny detects some cutesiness in the script, and Paste feels the tranquillity tips into syrup. Nobody dislikes it; the spread runs from good to excellent, with nearly everyone in the upper half.

## Straight answers

**Is Perfect Days worth watching?**

*Perfect Days* is worth watching for anyone with a quiet evening and the patience to follow a Tokyo toilet cleaner through a week of near-identical days, and we scored it 83. Koji Yakusho's almost wordless performance holds the repetition together, though the dialogue, when it arrives, can sound like a greetings card, and a lovesick young colleague is pitched louder than the rest.

**How long is Perfect Days, and what is it rated?**

*Perfect Days* runs 2h 04m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch Perfect Days in Ecuador?**

*Perfect Days* is streaming on Netflix in Ecuador. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Perfect Days compare to Paterson?**

*Perfect Days* and [*Paterson*](https://film.one/film/paterson) are both films about a working man who repeats his week and finds enough in it, but Wenders's film is the stiller and more solemn of the two. *Paterson* is funnier and warmer company, with Adam Driver keeping the quiet stretches lively; *Perfect Days* asks more of your patience and is a little too fond of its hero's calm. Start with Jarmusch if you want comfort, Wenders if you want silence.

**What should I watch after Perfect Days?**

After *Perfect Days*, try [*Paterson*](https://film.one/film/paterson) (2016, Fi1m 84): A New Jersey bus driver writes poems and repeats his week; Jarmusch’s gentlest film. Then [*Tokyo Story*](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story) (1953, Fi1m 92): Ozu’s parents visit their grown children; the film Wenders has been chasing for forty years; and [*Wings of Desire*](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire) (1987, Fi1m 88): Wenders’s angels over Berlin, watching and taking notes; the same patience, a bigger canvas.

### Reviews we read (25)

- **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): Wim Wenders captures the beauty of the everyday in his best fiction film since Wings of Desire. The delicate, meditative film adapts the director’s documentary approach to a fictional subject centered on a Tokyo toilet cleaner's quiet routine. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/perfect-days-wim-wenders-captures-beauty-everyday-his-best-fiction-film-since-wings-desire)
- **Empire**, Alex Godfrey (85/100, inferred): The film tenderly explores how routine can bring bliss and comfort to a solitary Tokyo toilet cleaner. It praises the lead performance for its nuance and the film's serene, meditative quality as a rare soul-cleansing experience. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/perfect-days/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele (85/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a beautifully observed paean to caretaking, led by Koji Yakusho's sublime performance as a solitary man at peace with his routine existence cleaning public toilets. It singles out the exquisite pleasure of the near-silent lead performance and the film's hard-won wisdom of acceptance. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-02-08/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-japan-koji-yakusho)
- **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (85/100, inferred): The film feels like a lifelong Wenders dream realized, the best he has made in years, with Yakusho's face and Tokyo's architecture captured with rare sensitivity. It finds profound humanity in the humdrum details of one man's contented routine. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/wim-wenders-has-tried-to-make-perfect-days-his-whole-life.html)
- **The AV Club**, Murtada Elfadl (B+): Wenders achieves a sweet and simple return to form with this patient, observational portrait of a Tokyo janitor whose routine reveals wonder in ordinary moments. Yakusho's subtle, compelling performance anchors the film's appreciation of small joys and human connection. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/perfect-days-movie-review-wim-wenders-1851232566)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (3/4/4): Wim Wenders’ gentle character study features a beautifully restrained performance from Kôji Yakusho as a toilet cleaner who lives a simple life in Tokyo. The film’s profound simplicity and poetic balance are highlighted, with Yakusho conveying everything through subtle glances and movements. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/perfect-days)
- **Radio Times**, Max Copeman (4/5): Veteran German director Wim Wenders heads to Japan with this serene and unassuming drama about a contented Tokyo toilet cleaner. Strengthened by a sympathetic performance from Koji Yakusho, it is an ode to solitude and everyday pleasures that rewards patience with its gentle pacing. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-uysxt5/perfect-days/)
- **Screen Daily** (80/100, inferred): Wim Wenders returns to Cannes with a meditative tale of a man living a quiet existence in Tokyo. It is a likeable, elegantly crafted philosophical contemplation about the meaning of life, with an immensely likeable central performance from Koji Yakusho and luminous photography. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/perfect-days-cannes-review/5182617.article)
- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (80/100, inferred): Wenders delivers a profound, Zen-like portrait of a humble, dignified toilet cleaner who finds joy in simple routines amid Tokyo's working-class life. It highlights the film's tactile appreciation of everyday pleasures and resistance to conventional success metrics as beautiful and moving. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/perfect-days-review-most-profound-film-toilet-cleaners-2918205)
- **Variety**, Guy Lodge (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it Wenders' best narrative film in decades, a simple touching ode to working routine and everyday human connection that feels fresh and arthouse-friendly. It praises the humane embrace of everyday blessings alongside occasional flourishes of stoic lyricism and emotional depth, such as a family reunion and a shadow-dance encounter. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/perfect-days-review-1235625063/)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (3/5): Wim Wenders returns with a gentle rumination on life, music and Tokyo toilets in a realist drama told with fairy-tale lightness. It is a ruminative slice of slow cinema that rewards patience with warm emotions and a character study with real depth, though not top-tier Wenders. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/perfect-days-2023)
- **Financial Times**, Leslie Felperin (★★★★☆): The veteran filmmaker brings moments of real beauty to the gentle routine of one man’s life. It is not a perfect movie but it comes pretty close, adding up to much more than a series of contemplative moments of beauty with a groovy pop and rock soundtrack and a greatest-hits medley of Wenders’ finest film moves. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/7269cafe-328a-4641-9bda-f05f7bb9b9dd)
- **IndieWire**, Siddhant Adlakha: Wenders delivers a quiet ode to Ozu with this slice-of-life drama centered on Tokyo's distinctive public toilets and a man's humble daily existence. The review highlights the German director's empathetic observation of routine and place. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-1234868033/)
- **The Guardian**: The German director makes a strong case for simple living with this achingly lovely tale starring Kōji Yakusho as a Tokyo public toilet cleaner who finds quiet joy in the world around him. Yakusho conveys an extraordinarily rich interior life almost entirely without dialogue, and the film is a zen meditation on beauty, fulfilment and simplicity that is unexpectedly life-affirming. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/25/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-koji-yakusho-tokyo-toilet-cleaner)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: Wenders crafts an ineffably lovely, emotionally rich character study of a Tokyo toilet cleaner's pared-down routine of service and small pleasures. The film builds cumulative power through clarity, soulfulness and empathy in observing an ordinary life. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-1235501313/)
- **The New York Times**, Alissa Wilkinson (Critic’s Pick): The critic finds the film a gentle excavation of a Tokyo toilet cleaner's life, noting how it pays close attention to shadows, trees, and small daily routines as characters in their own right. It portrays the protagonist's habits as both a source of quiet fulfillment and a possible bulwark against inner chaos. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/movies/perfect-days-review.html)
- **The Telegraph**: This Oscar-nominated drama from Wim Wenders about a toilet cleaner's daily life is a lovingly detailed character study. Played with a mesmerising light touch by Kōji Yakusho, the film is a softly spoken and lovingly detailed portrait of the steady yet quietly altering patterns of a Tokyo service worker’s daily life, with Wenders’ affection for Tokyo and avoidance of cliché. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders/)
- **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★★★☆): This understated drama by Wim Wenders is really rather lovely. It is a rhapsody in loo starring Koji Yakusho as a soulful sixtysomething who takes the business of scrubbing public lavatories very seriously, with a guileless purity and delicate, contemplative performance from Yakusho. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/perfect-days-review-koji-yakusho-h5l0q5fbp)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (9/10): The film is a masterwork from Wenders about finding joy and beauty in life's small routines and overlooked details. It is anchored by Yakusho's flawless, naturalistic lead performance as the contented toilet cleaner Hirayama. [Read](https://collider.com/perfect-days-review/)
- **Deadline**, Damon Wise (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Wim Wenders' gentle exploration of the dignity of labor in the life of a Tokyo toilet cleaner, highlighting Koji Yakusho's serene performance and the film's focus on simple pleasures and small gestures. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/05/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-cannes-film-festival-1235379534/)
- **Eye for Film**, Anne-Katrin Titze (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's patient, Ozu-inspired observation of small daily rituals and human connections through the life of a Tokyo toilet cleaner. She singles out the 4:3 framing and the protagonist's quiet wisdom for allowing overlooked mysteries and fleeting beauty to shine. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/perfect-days-2023-film-review-by-anne-katrin-titze)
- **The Playlist**, Rafa Sales Ross (B+): The review calls it a moving but imperfect return to form, honoring Ozu and others through serene routines and a standout silent performance, while noting the class commentary feels underdeveloped. It praises the lead actor's ability to convey depth through glances and music-infused moments. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders-latest-is-a-moving-yet-not-unflawed-return-to-form-cannes-20230526/)
- **The Skinny**, Stefania Sarrubba (★★★★): The film offers a bittersweet slice-of-life portrait of a Tokyo toilet cleaner's contented solitude and rituals, which begins to face challenges from brief human encounters. It praises the commanding central performance by Kōji Yakusho while noting some elusiveness and occasional cutesiness in the script. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/perfect-days-wim-wenders-review)
- **The Wrap**, Nicholas Barber (80/100, inferred): Wenders delivers an endearing portrait of a modest toilet cleaner whose quiet, diligent life and cultural pursuits offer a philosophical look at happiness in simplicity, marking a return to form. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/perfect-days-review-wim-wenders/)
- **Paste**, Brianna Zigler (7.2): Wenders' patient, understated film is a sweet return that lovingly captures Tokyo and simple pleasures but can feel overly tranquil and syrupy. Yakusho's nuanced, Zen-like performance as Hirayama is the standout anchor. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/wim-wenders/perfect-days-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Wim Wenders
- **Director:** Wim Wenders
- **Screenplay:** Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki
- **Cinematography:** Franz Lustig
- **Editor:** Toni Froschhammer
- **Production design:** Towako Kuwajima
- **Costume design:** Daisuke Iga
- **Producer:** Takuma Takasaki, Wim Wenders, Koji Yanai
- **Cast:** Koji Yakusho as Hirayama; Tokio Emoto as Takashi; Arisa Nakano as Niko; Aoi Yamada as Aya; Yumi Aso as Keiko; Sayuri Ishikawa as Mama; Tomokazu Miura as Tomoyama; Min Tanaka as Homeless
- **Runtime:** 2h 04m
- **First release (France):** 25 May 2023
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Also in:** [Palme d'Or winners](https://film.one/collections/palme-dor.md) (Nominee, 2023)
- **Budget:** $14 million
- **Box office:** $24 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv8YO5BXCAQ

## Where to watch in Ecuador

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, BE, BR, CH, CL, CO, DE, EC, ES, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, JP, KR, MX, MY, NL, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PT, TH, TR, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2024: Best International Feature Film (nominated)
- International Submission to the Academy Awards 2024: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated)
- Cannes Film Festival 2023: Palme d'Or (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Paterson* (2016), Fi1m 84: A New Jersey bus driver writes poems and repeats his week; Jarmusch’s gentlest film. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/paterson.md)
- *Tokyo Story* (1953), Fi1m 92: Ozu’s parents visit their grown children; the film Wenders has been chasing for forty years. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story.md)
- *Wings of Desire* (1987), Fi1m 88: Wenders’s angels over Berlin, watching and taking notes; the same patience, a bigger canvas. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md)
- *Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles* (1975), Fi1m 72: Akerman’s three hours of a widow’s routine, and what happens when it slips. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/jeanne-dielman-23-quai-du-commerce-1080-bruxelles.md)
- *Le Havre* (2011): Kaurismäki’s shoeshine man helps a boy hide; deadpan, kind and quietly stubborn.

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/perfect-days