to the lows and every high

let it linger: perfect days (2023) by wim wenders

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update (7/6/2025): sharing an artwork i've made while letting the movie linger :") hehe

last saturday, carlos and i watched wim wenders’s perfect days (2023), and afterwards, this movie earned a spot on my letterboxd top 4. there was actually only one other movie there, whisper of the heart, but i digress.

i immediately noticed the aspect ratio and the editing. i’m not sure if it’s because of where i watched it, but i’ve always been nostalgic and have always had a soft spot for 90s/00s-esque films, so i knew i was going to enjoy the film regardless of the story. there’s just something about the film’s colors and aspect ratio that’s comforting to me.

koji yakusho’s performance as hirayama was absolute perfection. even when his character was a man of few words, his acting was so expressive, to the point where you could actually kind of tell what he was thinking. i think the moment where his acting really stood out to me though was towards the end, that montage of him driving. his expressions perfectly captured the mix of happy-sad, and there were times where you could see the sadness peek through a bit, then he’d have a smile on his face. aaaaaaa it’s so good, i was really so impressed with him here. i spoke with isay about this, and she brought up how his acting in the scene with his sister stood out as well, and i agree! it was the perfect combination of emotional while being restrained and true to his character.

i think, though, what i remember most about the film is its message and the takeaways i want to apply in my own life. hirayama shows that happiness can be found in the little joys in life: a good book, your favorite tunes, the way the sunlight filters through the trees, and that a structured life isn’t something dreary, especially when you allow for bits of whimsy in your life (e.g. playing that tic tac toe game in the restroom). i’ve also personally been trying to remember/channel hirayama whenever i have to start the workday - i usually start the workday with dread at the thought of working, but remembering how he stops to appreciate the sky, lovingly tends to his plants upon waking, and carefully selects a cassette to play before driving off to work made me want to start my mornings with small things to look forward to.

anyway, to organize my thoughts better, i managed to whittle down my takeaways/realizations into 3 main points.

  1. hirayama lives a content and happy life because of the different areas of his life that he tends to outside of work.

in the morning, he has the plants he routinely waters as soon as he wakes up, and it’s a sort of ritual for him to select a cassette tape to play during his drive to work. during his lunch break and mini breaks at work, he pays attention to his surroundings and environment, appreciating in particular trees and the way the sunlight filters through the leaves. at night, he goes to the baths, eats out for dinner, and goes through several pages of his current read before calling it a day. on the weekends, he reads, goes to the bookstore, has his film developed, lays down to listen to a select cassette tape, and visits a local pub/restaurant, where he’s a regular.

i’ve always been intentional about cultivating areas of my life outside of work (e.g. books, my art), and this movie has further reinforced the importance of this. i particularly admire how consistent he is with making time for all these things (except for the day where he has to pull a double shift suddenly) and how so much of his activities are rooted in the physical environment/aren’t tied to a screen. for the former, i try to do at least one hobby (usually reading) when things are busier than usual. i’m still working on the latter, but i know it isn’t realistic to have eliminate all screen hobbies since i do love procreate and my kindle, so what i’m trying to do is incorporate more non-screen hobbies (e.g. reading physical books when i can, doodling, junk journaling, etc.). this also inspired me to get back into photography and to try out more non-screen activities.

  1. however, hirayama lives a contented and happy life also because he finds purpose in his work (though his life doesn’t just revolve around this).

hirayama works as a toilet cleaner, and the status associated with his job doesn’t exactly garner him much admiration. despite the “lowly” status commonly associated with his job, he still does his job well and derives a sense of purpose/satisfaction from what he does. i think the fact that he has his own equipment (that mirror!!) shows that he wants to do an excellent job at what he does, even if it’s something as seemingly menial as cleaning toilets, and you can see that sense of satisfaction when a restroom is squeaky clean after he’s done his work.

i think this shows that work does play a role in one’s feeling of contentedness/satisfaction with life. this isn’t to say his entire sense of purpose comes from his work - it clearly isn’t, as seen in my earlier point about how he lovingly tends to other aspects of his life outside of his job, but rather, that work (given, of course, optimal/satisfactory working conditions) is important in one’s ovrall life satisfaction. hirayama’s job isn’t glamorous, nor is it high-paying (i’m assuming), but he doesn’t hate what he does, it doesn’t take up all his time and energy, and he derives pleasure from having done a good job, and this largely contributes towards his general contentment with life.

this, though, requires a bit of nuance. it’s hard to find purpose or gain satisfaction through work as we know it nowadays - shitty pay, long work hours, bad work environments - and i understand (and somewhat resonate) with the “i do not dream of labor” sentiment. but i do feel that the pendulum has swung a bit in the opposite direction, and people think that we shouldn’t work at all.

i don’t know if i entirely agree with this: i think work is important because it’s a way to generate satisfaction and purpose (through doing a good job or doing work that impacts society), and i think the times i’ve been happiest are where i knew i was doing a good job at work (and working less hours) and having time for my hobbies and things that matter most to me. i do think, though, that work as we know it nowadays is so broken (due to reasons i mentioned in my earlier paragraph and more) to the point where it’s hard to have work be something rewarding. so many things need to change – shorter work hours, job stability, better compensation, to name a few – for work to be a path to purpose and feeling a sense of reward and accomplishment. i guess a hesitation of mine is that there was always work being done in the old times (hunting and gathering, caretaking) and, moving forward, there’s important work that will always need to be done (e.g. cleaning, governing, teaching, etc.), so i do think people shouldn’t exactly aspire to not work at all because i’m not exactly sure how society would function in that case….

i do admit and believe that work can also really just be a means to an end, and not everyone has to or is able to derive satisfaction from their work (which further reinforces my first point about needing to tend to other hobbies or aspects of one’s life). for me, though, given how a third of our day (or even more, unfortunately) is spent at work, it’s important to me that i derive a sense of satisfaction or reward from work. or, at the very least, that i’m not miserable or hate what i do.

i got a bit off topic there, but going back to hirayama, i love how he subverts not just the expectations of what people think being a toilet cleaner is like (he enjoys his job and finds it rewarding) but also the general work culture in japan wherein your work is almost your entire life. this might be a bit corny, but i’ve been trying to channel hirayama every weekday morning. i generally enjoy work but would, of course, much rather be doing less of it, but this isn’t something i can change at the moment. so, to cope, i try to treat each day as a challenge/way for me to feel a sense of accomplishment, and i try to do well in what i do a la hirayama.

  1. lastly, and for me, most importantly, hirayama lives a content and happy life because of how intentional and mindful he is in everything.

hirayama is always so present and focused on whatever he’s doing in the moment, whether that’s cleaning the toilets, enjoying nature during his breaks, reading his current read, listening to music – he zeroes in and concentrates fully on the task at hand. it’s something i want to do more of, because i always feel like i’m thinking/worrying about the future or have something else running on my mind. i just want to be present and be one with my surroundings.

another way this mindfulness/intentionality shines through (which i realized watching video essays afterwards) is with how he collects things meaningfully. he doesn’t hoard books (only buys one at a time, after he’s finished what he’s currently reading), and he makes the act of listening to music an intentional one (lying down and fully immersing himself in the album). in fact, for the latter, the only time he plays music while doing something else is when he’s driving. and even that is very intentional (he carefully selects which cassette to listen to) as opposed to how we are these days with music – with the advent of streaming, it’s so easy to always have something playing in the background, and this takes away from the intentionality/mindfulness of listening to music.

this, in particular, is something i also want to do more of. i want to be more intentional with my reading, my listening to music, my watching movies or series, my art, basically everything! i’ve always assumed that more is better (more books, more music listened to) but hirayama shows me that enough is what we should strive for, not more. you can be happy with enough! i think the world/society feeds us the thought that we always need more and that enough won’t cut it, but hirayama proves otherwise. i want to buy less, let books and movies and music linger instead of trying to read or watch or listen as much as i can. i want to be intentional with the art i make - creating because i want to and not because it’s something to tick off my to do list. i just want to live more intentionally!!

other noteworthy things:

though not part of my main takeaways, other lessons/realizations i had that are worth mentioning are:

anyway, wow this is so long. i can’t believe i wrote a 2k review/entry on a movie, but i have never been able to enjoy anything casually so this doesn’t come as a surprise to me or to those around me.

tldr: the movie’s amazing, please watch it, a lot of food for thought :”))