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Wim Wenders on Why Hirayama, the Tokyo Toilet Cleaner in ‘Perfect Days,’ Matters: ‘There Are No Nobodies!’

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variety.com

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Perfect Days,” which world premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, is reminiscent – in some ways – of “Groundhog Day,” but whereas in the latter film Bill Murray’s character, Phil, is trying to escape the repetitive nature of his existence, in Wim Wenders’ film the protagonist, Hirayama, is “embracing it,” the German director tells Variety.

Both films show the lead characters waking at the same time each morning, but whereas, in “Groundhog Day,” Phil is awoken by an alarm clock, in Wenders’ film, as he points out, Hirayama, played by Cannes best actor winner Koji Yakusho, “wakes up on his own, or he wakes up because there’s an old lady brushing the street outside, always on time.

He doesn’t need an alarm clock. He doesn’t even own one.” There is a sense that this is a man in harmony with nature, and at peace with his existence, rather than wrestling with it. “When he opens his eyes, he’s happy that this new day starts.

And that’s where the similarity with ‘Groundhog Day’ abruptly stops,” Wenders says, seemingly happy to escape the comparison. “He’s not suffering from having to go through his routine.” Part of the reason for the contrast between the two characters may lie in differences between certain aspects of traditional Eastern philosophy, where the idea of repetition doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation, and the restlessness of contemporary Western culture, with the aspiration to move onto something new, rather than appreciate what already exists.

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