nishant

Hori and miyamura were kinda cute together but oh my god was this such a boring show

*"Next time is next time; now is now."* Japanese cinema has a strange way of subtlety in their films, and *Perfect Days* might be one of the best examples of this. Somehow, you find that a film with such minimal dialogue speaks far more than many films with extensive ones; even just the ending shot of Hirayama's face is enough to move and strike awe in an audience — not to mention it's testament to the actor's brilliance. The modern view of a satisfied life being the absence of suffering, the abundance of money, a high status, etc, seems absurd after simply viewing the life of a toilet cleaner for two hours: satisfaction is rather when one can accept reality despite suffering, despite a lack of wealth, despite a lack of status — and perhaps it is the acceptance of this, that would make our own perfect days.

Ending an overall great shoujo run on a complete disappointment. Having previously watched this film years ago, I thought a rewatch may have proved my dislike of it was only attributed to my age, though clearly I was wrong. For a romance, it may be universally agreed that it's two main aspects are the characters, and their relationship with each other; yet this film not only lacks both of these, but almost everything else as well. The ML had no character whatsoever: I challenge any person who likes this film to name me one fact about him other than 1. He is (insufferably) nonchalant, 2. He has no friends so only reads books, 3. He follows the "nonchalant guy turned nice" because of some girl he likes. The FL, though admittedly having an interesting character outset, was absolutely insufferable. And it was this that made the two leads have absolutely zero chemistry with each other, except for maybe some minor scenes added here and there in the film. Truly an overrated sloppish film. If you want nonchalant guy meets loud girl, go watch ao haru ride instead.

Proof that Shinkai works best at romance and not fantasy or action... Quite promising at the start, but ended up overall as a very clunky film