My friends invited me to join them for the screening of ‘Perfect Days’ movie. In spite of my submission work, I decided to go for the screening as they mentioned it was a story of a ‘Toilet Cleaner’ in Japan. As the screening happened in a small room with a huge crowd, me and my friend decided to sit down and watch it. Before the movie, they screened a short introduction video of ‘The Tokyo Toilet’ project, where the three minute video was merely a glorification of the architects of the projects. In the so called Introduction Video, they portrayed the architects as the heroes of the project, where the workers are telling “Our cleaning never used to get recognized. Users now say thanks to us. ‘Some even bring cold drinks on a hot day like today’”.
This could have been enough. But still I find it difficult to figure out what is the need to take a two hour long advertisement with a story. I watched good advertisements with nice fiction in Tamil and English, where Vijay and Fahad Fasil act together. The story captures the daily life of a toilet cleaner, where the visuals and camera angles were quite interesting, making us travel with the protagonist. He wakes up with the sound of a woman who sweeps the road. Taking a coffee, riding a car, he goes to clean every toilet which he was assigned along with another character Takashi.
The way they portrayed the glance of his dream was nice. The ‘X O’ game played by him was also working for me, as it was part of his daily life for a few days. There are many characters for which the writers didn’t draw much attention, and were focused only on the protagonist. However, I told myself that this movie captures the daily life of a worker, from his world. It felt at the end like a movie by Shankar where the protagonist was shown as a guy who is from a privileged background and ‘chose to be a toilet cleaner’. Big Arigato to the team!! It was not the story of a toiling worker rather it was of a ‘Gandhi’ who chose to do this profession.
The actor was good, particularly the last few minutes, the eye movements of the protagonist were brought out well. Rethinking the references to English Songs, and my question of why he is capturing so many pictures in an old camera and developing it into photographs and tearing some of them and keeping the rest in a box – wait, there are at least fifty boxes like that in his cupboard! Another coworker is suffering without money but this protagonist always had money. There was a scene where they capture the protagonist becoming angry when the coworker resigns from the work. If the story was from the coworker’s side, it could have been better. The movie points out that there was a fight between his father and he left the home and started working as a toilet cleaner. But the point is, when it comes to the privileged section of the society coming out of the family for such reasons is mere privilege similar to why Gandhi removed his shirt.
It is to be noted that films like these actually normalize the everydayness of the worker, where nothing changes, even the discrimination and issues. To assert this problematic statement, they made a protagonist who comes from a privileged background. “See, even his life is like that. It is your duty and you should enjoy it”. Seems like the Japanese Film was inspired by Manu Smriti. The coworker character, or the lady in the restaurant, or the homeless person truly indicate from where the ‘Perfect Days’ story must be told. But that is not possible, as this was more like a project to tell that this ‘should be a PERFECT DAY’ of a worker.
Athmanathan Indrajith is the Founder of Dravidian Political Society. His research interests include Periyarist Studies, Ecological Issues, and Peace Building.
