At the end of the year, Austrian films were released one after another.
Japan’s selection of films to win Oscars is particularly eye-catching.
Master director Wim Wenders ("Paris, Texas", "Under the Berlin Sky"), partners with top actor Koji Yakusho.
17 days of filming made Yakusho Koji the fifth Asian Cannes Best Actor after Tony Leung, Ge You, Yuya Yanagi, and Song Kanghao.
This film is also the best of the year in many people's minds.
Not much to say, let’s take a look today -
Although this film is a popular and well-received film in Cannes.
But after it went online, the plot caused a lot of controversy.
Some people praised it for finally seeing a work that focuses on life.
Some people also accused the film of being "cruel without knowing it."
What's going on?
Let’s start with the identity of the protagonist.
Hirayama, played by Yakusho Koji, is a cleaner in Tokyo's public toilets.
The video does not capture the details of work that are usually considered dirty and tiring.
On the contrary, the title of the film, "Perfect Days", defines his life.
He lived a regular, fulfilling and self-sufficient life.
Get up before dawn, fold the quilt, wash up, and change into work clothes.
After cleaning up, buy a can of coffee from the vending machine.
Drive an old van to work.
He is responsible for more than one public toilet, and the cleaning task is tedious.
From the floor at the entrance of the toilet to the floor, walls, countertops, toilets...
Everywhere he looked was his working area.
Lunch is a sandwich.
solved it while sitting on a park bench.
After get off work, he took his dirty clothes to the coin laundry and took a bath in the public bath.
Then go to the roadside izakaya to eat something, drink a glass of wine, and watch the baseball game on the small TV.
Just turn a few pages of a book before going to bed, and the day is over.
This happens almost every day.
He works diligently and without complaint.
will do the best he can even without supervision.
Use a small mirror to scrub the invisible corners in the toilet carefully.
Outside of work, he has a rich spiritual world.
Listen to rock music, read paper books, use a film camera to take pictures of trees, and raise some inexpensive flowers and grass.
Although he is old, single and living alone.
is in a poor financial situation and lives in a dilapidated, dark little house.
But many times, he would unconsciously smile with contentment.
It is not difficult to understand the doubts of many viewers.
Many people think that this film is just the self-righteous imagination of those in power.
beautifies and romanticizes the job of a cleaner.
But the reality is not as "beautiful" as in the movie.
But does the director really not know the real situation of the cleaner?
In fact, this is not the case.
The video also shows the imperfect side of a cleaner's life.
In the film, Hirayama’s colleagues are not so happy.
He didn't like the job. Cleaning toilets made him feel sick.
There are drunkards vomiting in public restrooms every night.
I am engaged in this line of work just because I lack the ability and cannot find a more decent job.
Because he thought he would change careers sooner or later, he never took his mind off the job.
He does not understand the serious and hard work style of his predecessors.
"What's the use of wiping so carefully, it will be dirty in the end anyway."
"Is it necessary to work so hard to do this kind of work?"
He resigned soon after.
Without new employees to replace the shift, Hingshan was left with a mess.
Hirayama has always been taciturn and has very few lines in the film. The only time
got angry was after the colleague left the company passionately.
After working overtime for a whole day, he called and complained, "I can't do all the hygiene every day, so I have to find someone to make up for it."
Hirayama's perfect self-consistency does not actually cover up the structural problems of society.
In the film, his serious efforts failed to earn the respect he deserved.
kindly helped the crying child in the toilet find its mother.
The child's mother was wary of him, and even wiped the hand of the child he held with a wet wipe in front of him.
After his family members learned about his work, they could not hide the sympathy on their faces.
In fact, the director did not try to present the image of an industry model worker.
On the contrary, his relationship with his industry and society has always been alienated.
Not only mentally, but also his actual conditions are not representative.
Although his background is not stated clearly, it can be seen from his communication with his family that his family background is originally good, and pursuing this career is not a natural choice.
He may have started working as a cleaner because of some changes and after the relationship with his father broke down, he chose to live alone.
It can be said that he initially chose this job to repair himself.
The video is more about presenting a revelatory way of life.
is what many netizens are pursuing today, a life with no internal friction and a powerful core.
In the film, Hirayama's work does not require much interpersonal communication, and the content and time are fixed.
Although you cannot gain value recognition externally, you can find your own rhythm of life and gain inner satisfaction inwardly.
After get off work, read, play music, bask in the sun, observe plants and shadows, dig out a root-rooted plant from under the tree, take it home and raise it.
Enjoying a sense of control over his life in a simple, orderly life is his greatest wealth.
The confusion of reality often comes from the inability to control life.
Of course, there is no such thing as an absolutely permanent life.
The video also captures the sense of loss of control after derailment.
Unexpected little things will disrupt his rhythm, sometimes giving him a different kind of happiness, and sometimes making him feel lonely for no reason.
In the film, his car is borrowed by a colleague and his private music collection is forced to be shared, making him feel embarrassed and uneasy.
But I was secretly happy that I found my soulmate unexpectedly.
When his runaway niece suddenly appears, he is forced to change his habit of living alone.
But he also felt a little happy when he was accompanied by someone.
Even small things like the sudden closing of the izakaya he frequented can stir up his mood.
The ripples of loneliness spread suddenly and unexpectedly. How to solve
?
In fact, like many ordinary people, I drink some beer, go out to relax, and join groups with people who share the same problem to keep warm.
But in the end, we have to go back to the days when the water was still and the water flowed deep, and continue to move forward regularly and at a constant speed.
A new day, the same work, and everything is back on track.
Accompanied by the familiar rising sun and rock music, a smile appeared on Hirayama's face again, but just like the change of light and shadow, loneliness and loneliness also flashed in the smile.
"Now is now, and next time is next time." This is Hirayama's philosophy of life.
His life is not so much "perfect", but more like building a secure life fortress through certain small things.
Many people criticized this film for glorifying workers and believed that the male protagonist's life was too literary and full of bourgeois sentiments.
To put it bluntly, the workers presented in the film do not conform to their imagination of this group.
But clearly, the film was not intended to be a social issue film.
just chooses a protagonist who happens to be a janitor.
Director Wim Wenders has always regarded Yasujiro Ozu as his idol.
In this film, he followed Ozu's style, avoiding eye-catching stunts and a strong sense of dramatic conflict, and everything flowed naturally.
Yakusho Koji doesn't have many acting marks on him, he looks like a real person.
He reads books, listens to songs, takes photos, and observes flowers and trees, but is not given more meaning.
It's more of a personal preference, and it's obviously the cheapest way to spend time.
paper books, old cassettes, film machines.
is just a backward technology and accidentally ran into the retro trend.
Even if they are like "petty bourgeoisie" and "literary youth", they are actually blameless.
After all, the film was shot in downtown Tokyo, which is indeed highly modern, and the architectural design is also artistic.
Hirayama was not from a lower class background.
The filming attitude of the film is not only not cold, but also full of warmth.
Many shots follow Hirayama's eyes to observe the world full of life.
Koji Yakusho, with his calm acting skills and expressive eyes, gives this character a sense of otherworldly innocence.
There are many lovely details in the film.
For example, Hirayama accidentally found a piece of waste paper in the corner of the toilet with a tic-tac-toe and a chess piece drawn on it.
He added a chess piece and put it back.
Over and over again, I played a game of chess with a stranger I had never met.
This is not to deny the harsh side of reality.
Indeed, many low-level workers face heavy workloads and may not have enough time to rest, let alone spiritual enjoyment.
Just saying that universal reality is no substitute for specific personal experience.
In fact, there are examples like Peace Mountain in reality.
For example, Wang Liuyun also does cleaning during the day and paints and reads at night.
In the documentary "My Psalm", the six migrant workers struggling to make ends meet are also poets living in the clouds.
There are also migrant workers who love philosophy.
The reason why they enter the public eye is because of the sense of separation between social identity and spiritual life.
But in its own right, like the film, it is self-consistent and complete.
For example, Wang Liuyun is very satisfied with her cleaning job and does not find it hard. She is content with having plenty of time to draw after get off work.
She regards life as the cultivation of the soul. She likes to observe nature and feeds birds with leftover rice.
"Wash and spread it under the canopy of the grove. In the bushes, at noon when the sun is warm, sparrows and turtledoves descend like elves to eat rice grains, crumbs of steamed buns and crumbs of noodles, chirping and playing."
In fact, not only the bottom workers, but also the lives of most ordinary people are endowed with many stereotyped imaginations and shrouded in many popular concepts.
Our imagination of ordinary people includes rotten social animals, counterattacking werewolves, and naked communicators living in the wilderness...
But obviously, more people live in more specific and complex situations.
There are more people like in the movie, who instead of going crazy, resisting, and complaining, finally choose to adapt to work and cultivate themselves.
Get spiritual nourishment after work, and balance the mediocrity of loneliness with small blessings.
This is not to advocate resignation, but rather to care for humanity beyond utilitarianism.
As said in the film, the big world is made up of countless small worlds, and everyone's world is different.
A pure and elegant world is not a poor class imagination, but a sublime confirmation of the ordinary.
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