Oscar-nominated Perfect Days is 'not about toilets', director Wim Wenders says

When German director Wim Wenders revealed his latest inspiration about Tokyo's public toilets, newspapers in his country "treated it like a joke", but now the film "Perfect Days" has been nominated for an Oscar.

German director Wim Wenders and Japanese actor Koji Yakusho posing during a photo session at the Sunset Marquis hotel in Los Angeles, California on 9 February, 2024. © AFP - Valerie Macon

"Toilets are the opposite of culture" in Europe, Wim Wenders told French news agency AFP in an online video interview. But in Japan, where the film is set, "that is not the case".

The movie's taciturn main character is a cleaner who ensures that a set of toilets in downtown Tokyo, designed by famous architects, are kept spotless.

He is meticulous in both his job and his habits, but as the days go by, the complexity of his situation comes to light, prompting reflections on urban solitude, community and growing older.

Wenders said his critics had "realised how much this film is not about toilets".

"But toilets are part of it, and toilets are part of a very specifically Japanese sense of welcoming [...] and a sense of respect for this very human need that we all have."

Read also ► Hygiene and humanity explored through Tokyo's famous toilets

Watch the video

02:12

A performance inspired by the Tokyo Toilet installation at Paris Photo Fair 2023. © RFI

Oscar-nominated

Perfect Days is a finalist for the Oscars' Best International Feature category which will take place on 10 March, and is Japan's first entry by a non-Japanese director.

Wenders, who has never won an Oscar despite his documentaries being nominated three times, co-wrote the script with top advertising creative Takuma Takasaki.

It's yet another eclectic subject for Wenders, 78, whose cult works include the drifter drama Paris, Texas and documentaries such as Buena Vista Social Club.

Also, in May last year, star Koji Yakusho won Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival for his performance.

Zahra Amir Ebrahimi presents Koji Yakusho the award for best actor for 'Perfect Days' at Cannes on 27 May, 2023. AP - Daniel Cole

Tokyo story

Back in 2020, the German was "heartbroken" to see how "the sense of the common good had really suffered in the pandemic", with rubbish strewn across Berlin parks.

Then Koji Yanai, son of the multi-billionaire founder of Japanese clothing giant Uniqlo, got in touch.

He invited Wenders to tour his toilet renovation project, hoping to inspire a series of short non-fiction films.

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After seeing some of the 17 facilities, including one with transparent cubicles that turn opaque when the door is locked, the director decided to make a full-length feature.

Impressed by the "sense of responsibility" in Japan, "I realised there was a bigger story to tell," he said.

The shoot was finished quickly, in around a fortnight, and the pair kept the film's dialogue sparse to ease the language barrier.

The director had already worked in the capital - 1985's Tokyo-Ga was a homage to cinematic master Yasujiro Ozu - and said it would be a "dream come true" to do so again.

(with AFP)