Perfect Days

A celebration of simple pleasures, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days serves up a level of cinematic grace that’s been missing from screens for far too long.

The legendary German filmmaker’s loving portrait of Tokyo janitor Hirayama chronicles a quiet, analog life, one populated with plants, point-and-shoot film cameras, books, public baths, and penpal-style games of tic-tac-toe.

And yet this kind, caring individual is no hermit or monk devoted to silence. The man has impeccable taste in music, which he plays on — what else? — cassette tapes, and makes solitary trips to his favorite noisy restaurants where he’s enthusiastically welcomed and enjoys “the usual.”

Kôji Yakusho’s soulful, wholly natural performance makes tagging along with Hirayama a pleasure, even at a seemingly ill-suited, “lowly” profession, in which he nevertheless takes great pride in a job well done.

Indeed, once Wenders and his co-writer Takuma Takasaki reveal a critical detail about their protagonist’s past, it makes Hirayama’s commitment to this spartan lifestyle all the more admirable and inspires those under Perfect Days’ enchantment to likewise make the most of their remaining time — however that may look.

If it doesn’t win the Oscar for International Feature, we riot.

Grade: A-minus. Rated PG. Starts Feb. 23 at Grail Moviehouse

(Photo: Neon)