“Only a good day
Drink Sangria within the park
Then later, when it will get darkish
We go residence

“Only a good day
Feed animals within the zoo,
Then later, a film too
After which residence

“Oh, it is such an ideal day
I am glad I spent it with you
Oh only a good day
You simply maintain me hanging on
You simply maintain me hanging on”
— “Excellent Day” by Lou Reed

What would an ideal day be like for you? Would you go on an journey? Would you spend it with a particular individual? Would you be at work or at residence? Would you do one thing new or belongings you all the time do?

That is the query on the coronary heart of Excellent Days, a drama directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Wings of Need) from a script written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki. The movie competed on the 2023 Cannes Movie Pageant the place it received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (the movie that greatest touches the non secular dimension of our existence) and the Greatest Actor Award for Koji Kakusho’s luminous efficiency. It has been nominated for Greatest Worldwide Movie within the 2024 Academy Awards.

Because the world opened up once more after the pandemic, Wenders was invited to Japan to see the Tokyo Bathroom Challenge, through which Japanese public bogs have been redesigned in 17 places with the assistance of 16 creators invited from all over the world. The producers envisioned that Wenders would make a brief movie about every facility. However he noticed one thing else within the venture – a chance to inform the story of one of many staff, unusually unseen and unacknowledged, who work in public areas.

His focus within the ensuing drama is Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), a cleaner of public bogs. His 14 “good days” are crammed with easy routines. Upon awakening, he folds up his mattress and places it away. He brushes his tooth, trims his mustache, shaves, washes his face, and mists his crops. He attire in a jumpsuit with The Tokyo Bathroom on the again. Opening the door from his small house, he smiles on the sky. Then he will get some espresso from a dispenser. In his equipment-laden van, he performs a cassette music tape.

Throughout his shift at a number of bogs, his work is meticulous. He washes down all of the fixtures and makes use of slightly mirror to examine that he has gotten any dust from underneath the bathroom. If somebody is available in, he steps out and patiently waits for them to complete.

At lunchtime, he goes to a park the place he takes an image of the glowing leaves of a favourite tree. Later, we be taught he has packing containers of those footage, all labeled by yr. He finds a small sapling and digs it up so as to add to his plant assortment at residence. He acknowledges a homeless man hugging timber.

After work he rides his bike to a bathhouse. After that respite, he goes to a favourite restaurant for dinner. At residence he reads earlier than falling asleep.

“Somebody as soon as requested His Holiness the Dalai Lama, ‘In case you solely had one phrase to explain the key of happiness, and of dwelling a satisfying and significant life, what would that be?’ With out hesitating the Dalai Lama replied, ‘Routines.’ ”
— Marc Lesser in Much less

Days are separated from different days by a sequence of summary dream photos, capturing key moments he has simply skilled. (These have been created by Donata Wenders.)

Most days Hirayama has to cope with a younger and irresponsible colleague (Tokio Emoto) who needs him to promote his cassettes so he can have the cash to woo a lady (Aoi Yamada). She is extra keen on his tape of Patti Smith’s music than the boy. At some point he visits a shrine. One other day he goes to a second-hand bookstore so as to add to his giant assortment of paperbacks.

“Benefit from the little issues, for someday it’s possible you’ll look again and notice they have been the large issues.”
— Robert Brault, American author

Hirayama’s routine adjustments when his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) exhibits up; {the teenager} has run away from residence. She goes to work with him and confides a few of her emotions. Using their bikes over a bridge, he reminds her that “Subsequent time is subsequent time. Now could be now.” She makes the phrases right into a chant.

That chant captures so much about Hirayama. He’s all about being current. Along with his small Buddha-like smile, he acknowledged every thing round him – his crops, the sky, the timber, the site visitors, the patrons of the bogs, slightly boy who’s misplaced within the park, acquaintances at a restaurant, his books. We be taught from an end-card on the movie, that when he takes his tree footage, he capturing “Komorebi, the shimmering of sunshine and shadow that’s created by leaves swaying within the wind. It solely exists as soon as, at that second.”

“The best way of the small instructs us to personal our smallness by holding our eyes on the celebs however our ft on the bottom.”
— Michael Gellert in The Means of the Small

In different methods as nicely, Hirayama is an exemplar of on a regular basis spirituality, particularly within the some ways he focuses on the small and little issues that give life that means. He pays consideration to the main points of his cleansing work, his crops, and his house. Every little thing has its place. He appreciates magnificence, particularly within the timber, but additionally within the melodies and lyrics of the music he loves. He’s type. Discovering slightly boy in one of many bogs, he takes him to his mom. On the bathhouse on a sizzling day, he followers an outdated man sleeping within the ready room. He clearly loves his niece and, regardless of being a person of few phrases, he enjoys her firm. He nurtures himself with music and books and Niko by listening to her considerations. And he performs. He performs tic-tac-toe with an nameless customer to one of many bogs. He meets a person with most cancers they usually have interaction in a sport of Shadow Tag.

In comparison with “motion motion pictures” or “relationship trauma” movies, not a lot occurs in “Excellent Days.” And that’s simply good. In the previous couple of minutes, Hirayama is driving to his first job of the day. Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” is taking part in from the tape deck. In an appearing tour de pressure that invitations your personal participation, the digital camera focuses on his face and the various feelings he’s feeling. “It’s a brand new daybreak” . . . sure . . . “It’s a brand new day” . . . sure . . . “It’s a brand new life for me” . . . sure . . . “And I’m feeling good” . . . YES!

Attempt a non secular follow with chores.