Perfect Days (2023)

Written by Randy Dreammaker on March 25, 2024

Life through his eyes

This is the story of a man who is caught between the past and the present. A man who has found contentment and happiness from being true to himself and his embracement of a time when things moved at a slower pace. A time when ones purpose was established in taking pride in what you do, no matter how insignificant it is perceived within society.

A movie about life.

What I enjoyed about this movie is how it brings the viewer into a first person perspective of the life journey of an ordinary person.

This movie is as close to a first person encounter with Japanese day to day life, as you can obtain without actually living there. It does an excellent job of introducing a few unusual and odd personalities someone living in Japan will encounter.

The majority of this movie could be watched without subtitles or audio, because it masterfully achieves the filmmaker goal of "show the story, instead of telling the story".

Having lived in Japan as a teacher, this movie was like watching my own experience seen from the lense of a camera. It really represents life in Japan in true form.

Things I Didn't Enjoy

This is a very slow moving movie at three hours long. it could of been shorter and still achieved its goal.

I'm not a fan of the transitional collages used to represent dreaming or the transition from night to day. These became redundant and felt like a waste of time.

One of the things that makes a great story for a movie is its rising conflict and ultimately the resolution. This movie has a very slow rise in conflict, and the resolution felt almost to subtle.

Final Thoughts

The story is tight, the cinematography is well done, the editing is well done, the acting is authentic.

I really enjoyed it, it is a really interesting story. I enjoyed the characters.