Perfect Days
If I had to choose my favorite movie, it would be Perfect Days.
The film shares a truth I similarly hold about living and a very Buddhist truth. A truth that says being content is a mental state worth magnitudes above happiness. To accept, more so, understand the phrase “this is life” and being “at peace” with the world.
Hirayama
Wim Wenders uses Hirayama to demonstrate this truth. Hirayama is a Japanese toilet cleaner who follows a mundane daily/weekly routine and doesn’t go out as much. Wenders notably plays with the fact that we “viewers” are, in a way, acting as judges for Hirayama.
“Hirayama is a janitor; he is a failed man.”
“These rituals are only a way for Hirayama to cope with his sad life.”
It speaks a lot to how we use people’s jobs to infer something of a person’s internal psyche. Anyone who works X job is “clearly miserable” or “lazy” or “boring” or “unsatisfied” or Y negative trait.
This is exactly how Hirayama’s sister interprets Hirayama. She sees that Hirayama is a janitor and demeans him in the later parts of the film. So how is Hirayama happy despite all of this?
“Other Minds” & “I”
I wager that Hirayama is happy simply because he has accepted others will interpret him as such and simply moves on with his life. He doesn’t fight their perceptions, nor does he internalize them. He lives1.
This speaks to a key concept and a question in cognitive science, and somewhat in sociology as well; the concept of “self” or “I.” A famous question that relates to this is the “problem of other minds.” It asks the question of how you could definitively know a person’s internal mental state without needing to make the leap of assumption or inference. It’s something we are all probably well aware of given how much “first impressions” or “reading intent” is valued.
The point is that Hirayama has access to his “I”; he knows and has access to his own cognition. He knows himself if he truly is miserably or in abject sorrow throughout his day-to-day and doesn’t rely on societal perceptions in establishing his “self.” He accepts that others will misunderstand him. And rather than correct them, he continues living as he always has.
To read further2 see: “Question of the Chariot”
Miscellaneous
- The website for the movie inspired me to learn more about design.
- The architecture of the bathrooms shown throughout the film was simply stunning as well.
- The soundtrack of the film are all old classics that feel very human.