‘Perfect Days’ Review: Wim Wenders’ Gentle Japanese Character Study is His Best Narrative Film in Decades

How do you tell the story of a life? That’s a question many of the characters in “Bucky F*cking Dent” poise aloud, a little too aware of their construction. It’s a question its star David Duchovny should have asked himself behind the camera, too.

Pat Sajak is saying goodbye to “Wheel of Fortune”. On Monday, the 76-year-old game show host revealed that he’s stepping away from the series after more than 40 years.

Pat Sajak is saying goodbye to . On Monday, the 76-year-old game show host revealed that he's stepping away from the series after more than 40 years.While the move may be a shock to fans, it's not exactly a surprise. When ET spoke with Sajak last September, the host admitted that retirement was a topic that had been on his mind a lot in recent years.«In most television shows by this time, you would have said, 'That’s probably enough,' but this show will not die,» he said of the game show, which premiered in 1975. «It appears I may go before the show.»«Years go by fast.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief German filmmaker Wim Wenders is to be the president of the jury that decides the main competition prizes later this year at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Wenders has frequent connections with the Japanese capital and last year shot his “Perfect Days” film in the city. The film recently appeared in competition in Cannes and earned Yakusho Koji the best actor prize. The Tokyo festival confirmed plans to host a celebration of Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro, who was born 120 years ago and died exactly 60 years later. Wenders previously shot 1985 documentary “Tokyo-ga” as a tribute to Ozu.

German director Wim Wenders will be feted with France’s prestigious Lumière Award at the 15th edition of the classic film-focused Lumière Festival in Lyon, running October 14-22.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has received overwhelming praise from critics, who have described it as “in the running for the best superhero film ever”.Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, the animated superhero film is the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.In the follow-up, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is launched on another adventure into the multiverse alongside Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).A synopsis reads: “Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.

Phillip Schofield has issued a grovelling apology to Holly Willoughby after lying to her about his affair on This Morning.

Pep Guardiola was snapped beaming from ear-to-ear at last night’s Elton John show at the AO Arena. The City manager had his phone up filming the British pop icon’s hit-filled set just like one of us.

Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-based Cannes Competition title Perfect Days has clocked a series of international deals for The Match Factory.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which won the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the Cannes Film Festival, has sold out worldwide. The Match Factory is handling international sales. As previously announced, North American rights went to Neon and France went to Haut et Court. Further sales included U.K./Ireland/Latin America/Turkey (MUBI), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Paradiso), China (DDDream), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (A Contracorriente), Switzerland (DCM), Baltics (A-One Baltics), Bulgaria (Art Fest), CIS (A-One), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Former Yugoslavia (MCF), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Hungary (Cirko), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Poland (Gutek), Portugal (Alambique), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Scandinavia (Future Film) and Taiwan (Applause).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Perfect Days,” which world premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, is reminiscent – in some ways – of “Groundhog Day,” but whereas in the latter film Bill Murray’s character, Phil, is trying to escape the repetitive nature of his existence, in Wim Wenders’ film the protagonist, Hirayama, is “embracing it,” the German director tells Variety. Both films show the lead characters waking at the same time each morning, but whereas, in “Groundhog Day,” Phil is awoken by an alarm clock, in Wenders’ film, as he points out, Hirayama, played by Cannes best actor winner Koji Yakusho, “wakes up on his own, or he wakes up because there’s an old lady brushing the street outside, always on time. He doesn’t need an alarm clock. He doesn’t even own one.” There is a sense that this is a man in harmony with nature, and at peace with his existence, rather than wrestling with it.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Wim Wenders, whose immersive 3D portrait of artist Anselm Kiefer, “Anselm,” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Screening, is a passionate advocate of the 3D format, which he believes engages the human brain in ways that 2D fails to do. “You could just as well be brain dead in some movies, because the amount of brain activity is minimal. In 3D, however, your whole brain is aflame,” he tells Variety. “Parts of your brain are working to establish the space – which is something you’re doing yourself: you get two separate images on the screen and your brain is putting them together, just like you do in life with your two eyes. So, your brain is enormously active, but other parts of your brain are active as well – you are emotionally more involved as you are more ‘there’.

It’s a wrap for the 2023 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where French director Justine Triet’s courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” has won this year’s Palme d’Or for best film.

The official synopsis for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is one of those rare occasions when a tightly-described premise encapsulates the immensity of a film: a janitor in Japan drives between jobs listening to rock music. In this case, the janitor is Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), an older man whose job is cleaning Tokyo’s elegantly designed public toilets.

“Perfect Days” makes a perfect debut.PERFECT DAYS. Did Wim Wenders just make his best film since UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD? Holy crap.Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” was the hero of the day, earning strong notices and the now-standard standing ovation.

A third Wings of Desire centering on the angels that watch over us, is not in the cards, German director Wim Wenders said today at the Cannes press conference for his latest in competition title at the fest, Perfect Days.

EXCLUSIVE: Neon is nearing a deal for North American rights to Cannes competition entry Perfect Days from The Match Factory in a deal pegged in the mid-to-high six figures.

Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, he is a modest toilet cleaner – and this gentle, philosophical character study is all the more mesmeric for it.The 77-year-old director’s fictional work has been overshadowed by his documentaries lately, but his new film, a fictional work which sometimes resembles a documentary, is a significant return to form for the director who won the Palme d’Or in 1984 for “Paris, Texas.” It begins by introducing us to the middle-aged Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) as he wakes up alone in his small flat. Once he’s cleaned his teeth, trimmed his moustache and spray-misted his plants – yes, no detail is spared – he puts on a boilersuit with “The Tokyo Toilet” printed on the back, buys a can of coffee from the machine by his building, and drives his blue van through the city’s forest of skyscrapers to the first of several public toilets he is due to clean.He treats every one of these as if it’s a royal throne, even using a small mirror – the kind that’s usually seen in bomb-disposal thrillers – to check for dirt that might be hidden from view.

The dignity of labor is explored with gentle humor and a very melancholy sense of joie de vivre in Wim Wenders’ second 2023 Cannes entry after his 3D documentary Anselm. Shot entirely in Japan, with very little English spoken, Perfect Days is an unusual film from a westerner since it does nothing to “other” a country that is often romanticized as a series of specific cultural signifiers (as in the well-meaning Lost in Translation, for example). It’s a compliment to say that Jim Jarmusch could have made it.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Creatura,” the feature debut of Elena Martín, exploring female sexual desire and repression, has won this year’s 20th Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.   A second partner plaudit, the SACD Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label.