Wim Wenders picks his favourite Japanese movies
It’s all too clear that the legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders, known for Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, has a deep love for Japan and its impressive cinematic history, particularly the work of Yasujirō Ozu. He’s been fortunate enough in that respect to represent Japan at the Oscars with his 2023 drama Perfect Days.
A co-production between Wenders’ native Germany and Japan, Perfect Days sees Koji Yakusho play a toilet cleaner who seems to be happy with his simple life of reading, listening to rock music in his van and working in a structured way. In a feature with Letterboxd, Wenders paid tribute to his favourite Japanese movies of all time, giving clues as to the inspiration behind Perfect Days.
“I love Japan, and ever since I came there for the first time in the mid-1970s, I felt strangely at home, probably because of the cinema of Yasujirō Ozu, because he’s my declared master, and, for me, the most important figure in the history of cinema,” Wender said. “I’ve been there countless times in Japan. I’d feel homesick if I wasn’t there for a while.”
The iconic German director begins with Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 drama Ikiru. The film focuses on a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat, played by Takashi Shimura, as he makes his way across the city looking for meaning during his final days, learning how to live and examining the decaying importance of family life in Japan.
Wenders then moved on to his “great master”, Yasujirō Ozu, and claimed that he could select any one of the 53 movies he made. “Each and everyone and anyone,” he said. “For me, it’s one big work.” Amongst the legendary filmmaker Ozu’s most-admired works are Late Spring, Tokyo Story and An Autumn Afternoon.
Up next for Wenders is the 1964 Japanese New Wave psychological drama-thriller Woman in the Dunes, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and adapted from the 1962 novel of the same name by Kōbō Abe. Eiji Okada stars as an entomologist who begins a search for insects while trying to track down the titular character.
The list is rounded off by Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s mesmerising drama Drive My Car, based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami. Hidetoshi Nishijima plays a theatre director who directs a multilingual production of Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya while coming to terms with the death of his wife.
Wim Wenders’ favourite Japanese movies:
- Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
- The complete works of Yasujirō Ozu
- Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
- Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021)
