The movie that “drastically changed” what Wim Wenders thought cinema could be
New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders has been the subject of serious cinematic discourse for a long time now, known for his strikingly original works such as Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire. Recently, he found himself at the centre of attention once again with his latest feature, Perfect Days, which picked up an Oscar nomination during the last iteration of the Academy Awards.
Starring the immensely talented Kōji Yakusho as a cleaner who works on public toilets all around Tokyo, Perfect Days resonated with audiences across the world because of its simplicity and the sincerity of emotions. Pulling away from grand narratives or ambitious set pieces, like in Until the End of the World, the 2023 film explores what it really means to appreciate the mundanity of life.
For Perfect Days, Wenders sought inspiration from several sources, but none more so than the great Yasujirō Ozu. The German filmmaker had already made a documentary about his love for Ozu’s works in 1985 called Tokyo-Ga, but Perfect Days might just be his finest tribute to the beautiful filmography of the Japanese auteur.
During a conversation with Le Cinéma Club, the Paris, Texas director opened up about how Ozu altered his understanding of cinema when he watched Tokyo Story, considered by many to be one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th century cinema. Inspired by Leo McCarey’s equally devastating Make Way for Tomorrow, it follows the plight of an old Japanese couple who try to come to terms with how they have been abandoned and are unwanted by their family.
Wenders explained: “That was the first film by Ozu that I saw. It drastically changed my perception of what films could be: not just a description of the physical world but a transcendence of everyday life. We take it for granted that movies present ‘characters’ or ‘heroes’, that they give an image of ‘mankind’, certainly of ‘family life’ or ‘life’ in general, that they can tell ‘His Story’ with a capital H, but also just plain ‘stories’.”
According to Wenders, it’s important to dig deeper into the symbolic representations associated with the characters in Ozu’s stories in order to unravel greater truths about the modern condition, which he navigated so brilliantly through cinema.
The German director added: “In Ozu’s kingdom, I learned that films can get very close to ‘real life’ and that they can reveal the very soul and being of people. And that these people are not ‘functions’ of a story but the other way round: these people, as they live their life, create their own story. Which is a fundamental difference. In life as well as in movies. The elderly man in Tokyo Story, played by Chishu Ryū, was called ‘Hirayama’, by the way, and this is why we gave the same name to our central character in Perfect Days.”
Perfect Days might not focus on family relationships to the extent that Tokyo Story does, but it also has a lot to say about how our lives have poorly adapted to the times that we have inherited, rushing from one hour to the next without stopping to absorb what’s actually happening.
