At the Academy Awards, which will be announced on March 11th Japan time, ``PERFECT DAYS'' starring Koji Yakusho has been nominated for the International Feature Film Award and is expected to win.



The film was directed by Wim Wenders, known for such masterpieces as ``Paris, Texas.''


He has declared that he was greatly influenced by Japanese film master Yasujiro Ozu, and he spoke about this in an exclusive interview when he came to Japan for the Tokyo International Film Festival last year.

Guided by Ozu's spirit

“I am deeply honored to be able to represent Japan, the homeland of my great film mentor, Yasujiro Ozu, at the Academy Awards. PERFECT DAYS is a film inspired by his spirit. I couldn't be happier that I was nominated for an Academy Award.''


(From comments made at the time of the Academy Award nomination)

The movie ``PERFECT DAYS'' is set in a public toilet in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and carefully depicts the daily life of the protagonist Hirayama, a toilet cleaner, and his relationships with the people around him.

The film was created by director Wim Wenders after he felt sympathy for a project to install public toilets in Shibuya Ward that everyone could use comfortably.

All filming took place in Tokyo.



Director Wenders co-wrote the Japanese script with Japanese director Takuma Takasaki, and cast Japanese actors.



Koji Yakusho, who plays the lead role, attracted attention last year when he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Domestic box office revenue exceeds 1 billion yen.



In fact, this is not the first time director Wenders has made a film set in Japan.

In 1983, he came to Japan to film a documentary film called ``Tokyo-Ga,'' which was in pursuit of the Tokyo depicted in director Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece ``Tokyo Story.''



In this film, director Wenders has often professed his respect for Ozu and his influence on himself, saying, ``Ozu's works convey the truth about people in the 20th century.''

Who is director Yasujiro Ozu?

Director Yasujiro Ozu is a master of Japanese cinema who was active from pre-war to post-war.

Until his death in 1963 at the age of 60, he directed many internationally acclaimed films.

Director Yasujiro Ozu

``Tokyo Story,'' which was the basis for Wenders' ``Tokyo Picture,'' is Ozu's masterpiece that depicts the misunderstandings between an elderly couple in the countryside and their children who live far apart, and is still loved by movie fans around the world. It has been.

"Tokyo Story"

Director Wenders first encountered Ozu's work in New York in the 1970s and was shocked, and subsequently traveled to Japan to see it.

Director Wim Wenders


: ``When I came to Tokyo in 1977, I was given a spare room and watched about 12 films over two days, with no subtitles or English translations.By the second day, I was able to speak Japanese. I no longer felt like I had to understand it.I understood it anyway.I had seen about 50 Ozu films, but my My memory is that it's all one big movie. It's like there are many variations within that big movie."

Director Ozu repeatedly depicts the daily lives of Japanese families that change with the times.

Why did this touch the heart of Coach Wenders, who is of a different generation and nationality?

"Ozu's films are completely timeless. His stories are very modern, depicting the daily lives of ordinary families. It's also a relationship. It's the relationship between the remaining parent and the child when the father or mother dies, or the responsibility of a daughter who refuses to leave home to take care of her father who lives alone. The parents, grandparents, and children that appear in his films were, how should I put it, the very essence of human beings. That's why people enjoy his work as much today as they did 60 years ago. I think you can watch it.”

Thoughts on the main character “Hirayama”

The father of the family that appears in "Tokyo Story" is named "Shukichi Hirayama."

Actor Chishu Kasa plays the role of an elderly man who is shunned by his children who live far away and whose wife has passed away, but who still quietly accepts his life.

70 years have passed since the release of “Tokyo Story.”

Director Wenders named the main character, the toilet cleaner played by Koji Yakusho, "Hirayama" in "PERFECT DAYS."

Hirayama is depicted as a quiet person who works seriously and lives a regular life, loves books and music, and grows plants.

``The main character's name Hirayama is inspired by ``Tokyo Story.'' In many ways, it pays homage to Ozu's films. Hirayama loves simple things and is particular about nature and small events. None of the characters in Ozu's work are better than anyone else. All people are treated with dignity and respect."

If Ozu were to paint a family now,

In Hirayama, there are no families like those in Ozu's films.

However, in the movie, ``Hirayama'' builds small connections through interactions with the proprietress of the izakaya and his niece who suddenly visits him.

Director Wenders, like director Ozu, tried to show the connections between modern humans that go beyond the framework of families by depicting everyday life.

“If Ozu were still making movies, he would be portraying a completely different family.Today, there are families with two fathers and two mothers, and the idea of ​​a family is changing.And children... Ozu lived and grew up in a world far more dangerous than the one he depicted. Even in those times, I believe he remained honest. But his films can serve as an example."

It has been 60 years since director Ozu passed away.

Director Wenders says that today's young film directors also have something to learn from Director Ozu's work.

"I don't think any filmmaker who has seen one of Ozu's films on screen can pretend not to have been profoundly shocked and impressed by it. It's a beautiful example of the style and mastery of technique.I think young filmmakers should think twice about how they prepare.You can watch Ozu's films seriously without reconsidering your own profession. I don't think there's any movie director who can do that."