Perfect Days director Wim Wenders on movie’s Oscar entry, Japan’s ‘common good’, and envying his lead character
- Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is a celebration of small pleasures – and magnificent public toilets. We catch up with the director and the film’s star Koji Yakusho
If you’re ever caught short in Shibuya, fear not. A most pleasant public toilet experience awaits. The Tokyo Toilet was a scheme made in conjunction with the Shibuya City government, in which architects from around the world redesigned 17 urban conveniences in the area, turning utilitarian toilets into fabulous, functional works of art.
The last of these opened in March 2023 – by which point Wim Wenders was putting the final touches to his film inspired by the project, Perfect Days.
Wenders, the German filmmaker behind such masterly movies as Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987), has been in love with all things Japanese for as long as he can remember.
In 1985’s Tokyo-Ga, he travelled to the city to explore the work of renowned director Yasujirô Ozu. Four years later, he returned to make a portrait of fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, Notebook on Cities and Clothes.
And then came 1991’s U2-scored futuristic tale Until the End of the World, with a considerable portion shot in Tokyo. It was during the recent Covid-19 pandemic, however, that Wenders felt the urge to return.
“I was homesick for Japan very badly,” he says, and told his wife, Donata, that the moment they were allowed to travel again, Japan was first on the list. Then, out of the blue, he received a letter. “It was strictly an architectural invitation,” he explains.