Jubilee Films for Pilgrims of Hope: 'Perfect Days'

By Greg Apparcel, CSP

“Faces and Counterfaces of Hope” was a film series sponsored by the Dicastery of Evangelization last April in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee.  Pope Francis has called on all Christians to become pilgrims of hope.  In his Decree on the Granting of Indulgences during the Jubilee year, the Holy Father wrote that Hope “. . . is to be rediscovered in the signs of the times, which, encompassing ‘the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope.’ (Spes non confundit, 7)

And so I began my own pilgrim journey of hope by immersing myself in Wim Winder's 2023 film, “Perfect Days.”  We follow Hirayama in the ordinary routine of his day.  He wakes up, washes and dresses, waters his plants and drives to his job cleaning Tokyo’s public toilets.  These are the nine artistically designed toilets built for the Summer Olympics of 2020.  We travel alongside Hirayama in his meditations of the wonder of the world around him:  the shadows made by the treetops and sun, the homeless man doing tai chi, the lost child whose mother ignores the one who found him, the sad young woman eating her lunch alone and the pride Hirayama takes in his meticulously accomplished work.  He smiles but doesn’t say much.  He is aware of all that goes on around him and is grateful. Hope here lies in recognizing the beauty in the ordinary that is all around us.  And Hirayama memorializes that beauty in the photographs he takes each day.  While he drives from place to place, he enjoys listening to this collection of cassettes of music from the 70s and 80s, with the likes of Otis Redding, Patti Smith and Lou Reed. And when his workday ends, his evening routine begins. 

Hirayama rides his bike to the public bathhouse and after washing, relaxes in the hot tub.  He rests in a quiet room and even fans the elderly sleeping man in the hair net to him.  He dines in the places where he is known, watches baseball and observes the ever-present Skytree Skyscraper.  Before bed he reads William Faulkner, or whatever author he is currently reading At night, he dreams in black and white.  The shadows of trees are ever-present.  Sometimes a man holding a child’s hand appears, or the face of someone from his day, and these dreams are beautifully filmed.  In fact, the film was originally entitled “Komorebi” which is loosely translated as the effect of light leaking through trees.

On his day off, Hirayama does his laundry, cleans his house, gets his film developed and saves the best photos, placing them in one of many silver containers, alongside his collection of used books and precious cassettes.  One night in a restaurant, the gracious woman who runs it pays particular attention to all of her guests, especially Hirayama. When pressed to sing them a song, she finally agrees and offers a haunting rendition of “The House of the Rising Sun” in Japanese.  A few days later, he watches this woman embrace a man in tears.  Afterwards, the man approaches him and asks, “Did you see us?  You always go there, I guess. I’m her ex-husband. Seven years divorced.  Now I’ve got cancer. My body’s inflamed with chemo.  I felt I owed her an apology.  I wanted to thank her.” Then, in a tender moment, the two men observe the interplay of their shadows and like two little boys, they play shadow tag.  The last song Hirayama plays on his cassette is Nina Simone singing “Feeling Good” with these lyrics: “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, for me, and I’m feeling good” as Hirayama drives into the rising dawn

There are many more memorable scenes, more touching moments with his niece and sister, with the homeless man and with his dreams. I have to say this film spoke to me personally.  There’s something about where you are and who you are when you’re watching a particular film and it affects how you experience it.  Be aware of what’s around you.  See people whom you often don’t notice when you pass by them.  Pay attention to nature, especially to the trees which give shade, patterns and shadows in the interplay of light and darkness.  Let the trees help you understand your place in the world, and give you the hope that is right in front of you. Wim Winders, whose artistry I first came to appreciate in “Wings of Desire,” has made a masterful film in collaboration with his co-writer Takuma Takasaki, his cinematographer Franz Lustig and his editor Toni Froschhammer.  However, it is the performance by Koji Yakusho who plays Hirayama that makes “Perfect Days” a film not to miss.  Mr. Yakusho won Best Actor at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.  This was a well-deserved acknowledgement of the many varied dimensions he brings to the role.  The thoughtfulness and expressions on his face are truly amazing and help us see what is going on inside his soul.  And perhaps we participating viewers can come to understand something about our own soul.