Domaine Singulier couldn't miss Wim Wenders' latest film "Perfect Days"...
We discover that public toilets in Japan are an ode to hospitality and small temples of sublime ease.
The main character of the film is a modest man, Hirayama (Koji Yakusho best actor prize at the 76th Cannes Film Festival 2023), whose job is to clean public toilets in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.
He does his job meticulously and down to the smallest detail to make his toilets perfectly clean, every day, an almost immutable ritual. Hirayama also likes to read, listen to his music cassettes in the car and capture furtive moments with his camera.
The "Tokyo toilet project" is the source of Wim Wenders' film. 17 public toilets in the Shibuya district have been rehabilitated by world-renowned architects and designers, including Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Fumihiko Maki, Toyo Ito and Marc Newson.
Wim Wenders explains that the term "service" has a completely different connotation in Japan. " The Japanese have a strong sense of service and the common good. I was amazed to see how toilets can be part of everyday culture, and not just an almost embarrassing necessity." 
Beyond toilets, Wim Wenders invites us to reflect on the search for beauty in our daily lives, in the simplest places and gestures which become essential.
The director also invites us to experience the joy of contemplating, of marveling at the infinitely pure and simple and natural, such as the passage of the sun through the leaves of the trees. The praise of time slowing down, too.
A film that we recommend.
Note : when will there be public toilets in the big cities of France designed by great designers and architects that will be true havens of peace...?
Year of production: 2023
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 minutes
Release date in France: 11/29/2023
Sources and to find out more:
https://tokyotoilet.jp/en/
https://perfectdays-movie.jp/#modal
The conference at the Cannes Film Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXwFFR8LBhk
The press kit https://www.hautetcourt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/dp_perfectdays.pdf
movie poster photo: Koji Yakusho_Arisa Nakano_©2023 master mind Ltd