Director: Wim Wenders

Stars: Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano

Septuagenarian German director Wenders shows no sign of slowing down with this, his second release in under four months, following ‘Anselm’ his haunting profile documentary of artist Anselm Kiefer. Co-written by Takuma Takasaki, his latest profiles Hirayama (Yakusho), a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Wenders follows Hirayama’s regular routine of getting up, going to work, eating his lunch in the park (occasionally snapping pictures with his analogue camera), and evening meal in the same raucous café. At the weekend, Hirayama cycles to the local second-hand bookstore to stock up on novels. The feel is contemplative and sedate, soundtracked via Hirayama’s cassette collection which includes the more languid works of Lou Reed (including that song), Otis Redding and the Kinks. Wenders is reaching for a gentle Japanese humanism here, but his picture is probably most redolent of Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Patterson’ in its affectionate depiction of a regular working guy in the big city finding moments of grace and transcendence. There are moments of comedy too, chiefly via Hirayama’s gawky teenage co-worker Takashi (Emoto) who, in contrast to the reflective older man, marks all his experiences and acquaintances out of ten. Around the halfway mark we are afforded glimpses into Hirayama’s family life and history. This is a captivating, empathetic and quietly profound work with video director Franz Lustig’s sun-dappled cinematography enhancing the sense of wonder. His artful renderings of Tokyo’s state-of-the-art toilets, with their coloured square window panels, makes them resemble Mondrian paintings.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm