Interviews With "Perfect Days" Director/Co-Writer Wim Wenders & Star Kōji Yakusho

[00:00:00] You were listening to the Next Best Picture podcast, and these are Brendan Hodges' interviews

[00:00:06] with the director and co-writer for the Academy Award-nominated Perfect Days, Vint vendors, I mean the prospect seems a little irritating movie about a toilet cleaner. Yes. Do I want to see that? I don't know. But then again, it's not just a regular toilet cleaner. He has a few tricks, this guy, and he is very special. He's happy Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, the film has very little dialogue, and we learn almost everything about Haryama through process and behavior. You know, we watch the, as he listens to music, as he reads books, as he cleans, he seems to be very knowledgeable and intelligent. As you say, he has a few tricks. He's found this kind of tradition of service and of being of service and of being content with what he has. He's an amazing character, he's a beautiful man. And once you get to know him, he almost hypnotically pulls you into his realm.

[00:05:27] Well, you want me to tell about my secrets. So you totally right, we did shoot it a little bit like you should a documentary. As this is a man who is in total reduction and who has reduced

[00:05:36] his possessions to a minimum, he only has what he needs. He has a futon to live on and the

[00:05:41] timies in his room and his cassette recorder and cassettes and his book collection and a little living this life of reduction and happiness. And because we had somebody in front of us who really became that guy. So we followed him like you do a documentary, although his character is completely fictional. Yeah. Yeah. And is that sort of mastery of the art of reduction? And you wanting to try to do that visually?

[00:07:01] Is that the reasoning behind why you did

[00:07:04] the one three three academy ratio? and a sense of location to so many cities and settings, Germany before the Wallfell, New York City, the Southern US, and now Tokyo two different times. You turn architecture and space almost as much as a character as the actual characters played by your actors.

[00:08:20] I think that perfect days might be one of the all time

[00:08:22] great Tokyo films.

[00:08:24] We see a side of Tokyo rarely seen on. in a social context because there's a toilet, public toilet. So out of this came the idea for a fictional character that would take care of these stories. So because I don't know, I do love cities so much and I do love storytelling and I always believed that the best stories come out of certain place.

[00:09:40] In all my movies, place was first

[00:09:43] and then story came out of it

[00:09:45] and wanted to be told in that place. carefully chosen. As you say, these spaces seem to blend with the storytelling and the characters in this kind of perfect way. And as I said, it's a side of Tokyo we don't often see. So how did you go about finding all of these perfect little spots to film your film? Well, some of these spots I've photographed before because I'm also a photographer and I've and the point of views I like and I love these freeways. And I like driving through the city and luckily, Hireama drives every morning to work and every evening he drives home. So there's a little edge of a road movie in the film as well. And I love that little neighborhood in which he lives, which is one of the last remaining

[00:12:23] old neighborhoods with old wooden houses. you know, and that comes back full force in perfect days, whether it's the people in the park or the bathhouse or the different restaurants. What is it about observers and being an observer yourself that pulls you towards making movies about that? Well, our eyes are the most fantastic instruments we have

[00:13:43] and how our eyes interact with our feelings Because in the end, Iman is living in the now on here and he does do whatever good actor tries to do with everything they do in every scene. He tries to do it like it was the first or the last time he could do this. And that's how he lives here. Every moment is the first and last. And

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[00:16:17] Yeah, for sure. And I wanted to ask also, I mean, in Japan, Yarema, who's run away from her mom to spend time with her uncle, because that's the only refuge she knew in the world and her uncle takes her in. And so when her mother comes back, Yarema's sister, we realize she's from a different background.

[00:17:41] She comes in a fancy, big limousine,

[00:17:44] and we realize that's the word Yarema also came from.

[00:18:43] And he knows he's at a good place. And that is the question that puts to everybody.

[00:18:48] The more you look through the eyes of Hireama,

[00:18:52] the more you ask yourself, hey, am I in a good place?

[00:18:55] Yeah, yeah.

[00:18:56] And I only have time for one more question,

[00:18:58] but I had to ask about your working relationship

[00:19:02] with Koji Yikusho because his performance

[00:19:05] is totally transcendent. and me. We tried to make his acting shot in as good as possible. And eventually we had the, let me say, modesty, to realize that whenever we did rehearse, what he shot us was superb, and then we shot it, and I wish I had done the shot the rehearsal. So we finally asked him after

[00:20:21] a few days of shooting. Would you allow us lesson that you can also realize in your own life.

[00:21:40] You can try to live with less

[00:21:42] and you can try to be a master of your time.

[00:21:45] See, he doesn't watch television.

[00:21:47] He is not connected to the internet. today, how does playing a mostly silent character kind of affect that process of thing. So that was something that I did to prepare. And then I also always felt that I wanted audiences around the world to wonder if an actual toilet cleaner was cast for this film. So that was kind of something I kept in mind throughout the process.

[00:24:20] Yeah, it very much looked as though you were an expert.

[00:24:24] Obviously, the character has all these little gadgets So in the script, there was kind of a combination of those And so I wanted him to really feel like an actual toilet cleaner. So I thought a lot about how to do that. Yeah, that makes sense. And because of that, I think I often found myself just really mesmerized and even joyful watching here,

[00:28:20] I'm a perform these day-to-day tasks,

[00:28:23] even listening to music, going to turn out? There's this visual of the sun and the trees blowing in the wind and these very simple character. And I think that kind of internal gratitude is the richest way that someone can live. Wow, what a perfect way to end the interview. I also envyed him and I also hope I could have that immense gratitude towards daily life day by day. Thank you so much for your time, Koji.

[00:32:20] It's been a wonderful conversation talking to you.

[00:32:21] Thank you very much.

[00:32:22] Have a good one.

[00:32:23] Bye-bye.

[00:32:24] Hey, everyone. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end. I'm gonna go back to the end.

[00:33:40] I'm gonna go back to the end.

[00:33:42] I'm gonna go back to the end.

[00:33:44] I'm gonna go back to the end.

[00:33:46] I'm gonna go back to the end.