Le Navire, Valence, 16h20, theater 3 (almost full). The film opens with House of the Rising Sun, and before Eric Burdon starts singing, everyone in the room thinks it's Le pénitencier by Johnny Hallyday (probably).
Perfect Days follows the life of Hirayama, a man who cleans toilets in Tokyo, over the span of a few days (weeks?). The plot is pretty ambiguous, as in, it doesn't follow a clear narrative arc. You, the viewer, are not being told anything really (at least not anything explicit), you just get to watch and draw your own conclusions (if any). This ambiguity is part of what I loved about the movie: there are many ways to understand it, it's not a "that's a movie about X and Y"-type film.
While I can't sum up what the story is about, I have no trouble distilling what it is in a single word: empathy. A very diverse set of characters—not commonly represented in movies—comes in and out of Hirayama's life, and even though as a viewer you won't learn much about them, they're all depicted with incredible respect and empathy. And this will make you care.
I think it's only my second Wim Wenders film (after Paris, Texas), although there are a lot more on my watchlist. After seeing Perfect Days, they've all just gone up.
Perfect Days is touching and beautiful and absolutely worth a watch, 10/10 (intended film reference).
10/10