Perfect Days (2023)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.