Art Perfect Days: Yakusho Kōji wins Best Actor Award

[thomas]

Japanese actor Yakusho Kōji (役所広司, real name Hashimoto Kōji) won the Best Actor Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for his leading role in "Perfect Days," directed by Germany's Wim Wenders, the first Japanese actor in nearly two decades to do so.

"I love awards, but I don't really like giving speeches at the Cannes Film Festival, which is such a spectacular event," he said, prompting laughter. He repeatedly expressed his gratitude to the jurors, film director and staff. This is the first time in 19 years that a Japanese actor has won the award since Yuya Yagira, who earned it for his role in "Nobody Knows" in 2004 when he was 14 years old. Yakusho jokingly said in an interview, "I wonder if I have finally caught up with Yagira. "I must work hard not to disgrace this award," he added.

Koji Yakusho wins Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Synopsis:

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

PERFECT DAYS - Festival de Cannes

Hirayama travaille à l’entretien des toilettes publiques de Tokyo. Il s’épanouit dans une vie simple, et un quotidien très structuré. Il entretient une

www.festival-cannes.com

Why toilets?

Tokyo's public toilets inspire Wim Wenders – DW – 05/12/2022

The German director is making a film about public restrooms designed by renowned architects. The high-end toilets are the symbol of "Japan's world-renowned hospitality culture."

www.dw.com

The Tokyo Toilet Project

It is undisputed that Japan is a world leader as far as toilets are concerned. That does not only apply to the stellar development of toilet technology but to the high sanitary standards of public toilets as well: they are usually clean, odourless and well-stocked on toilet paper. The Nippon...

jref.com

 

[thomas]

"Perfect Days," a Japanese film with a Japanese cast, directed and co-written by the German auteur Wim Wenders, will be Japan's entry in the best international feature film category in the 96th Oscars to be awarded in March 2024.

If the intense buzz in Japan is anything to go by, the film has a good chance of winning. But why is this story, in which Yakusho's character Hirayama devotes more than half his screen time to cleaning public park toilets, so riveting? The reason is an enigma, like a conversation with a Zen Buddhist priest that leaves the interlocutor full of questions but infused with a strange serenity. If you have never been inside a Japanese public toilet, the film will be a revelation. Equipped with diaper-changing tables and makeup nooks, warmed seats, electronic bidets and automated basins that hands never need to touch, they are, quite often, sanctums of peace and hygiene. This was especially so during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the ground-floor toilets of many closed office buildings remained open to anyone who wished to use them.

Paywall alert:

Wim Wenders elevates Tokyo toilets into a movie masterpiece

'Perfect Days' seen in Japan as a top pick for best international film Oscar

asia.nikkei.com