Actor Koji Yakusho & Writer/Director Wim Wenders talk to The Inside Reel about process and approach in regards to their film: "Perfect Days" from NEON.
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Short filmTranscript
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00:10 >> [FOREIGN]
00:24 [MUSIC]
00:30 >> Well, we've met many times.
00:32 I think remember Don't Come Knocking when we were at Sundance with Sarah Pauly and
00:37 Sam.
00:37 But like that film, this film is about existence and
00:42 what we believe about our existence.
00:45 And yet, and I'll go to Koji after I ask you about this,
00:49 the aspect of balancing the ideas of regret and joy with a bit of hope.
00:54 Because you see both elements of this man throughout, and yet you see
01:00 that it's yin and yang of the same exact thought process.
01:03 >> Yep, and even in the last scene of the film,
01:11 you don't quite know if he's laughing or if he's crying.
01:15 Because you have a feeling he sees his life in front of him, and
01:19 you have a feeling he's proud of the decision he's made.
01:22 Maybe he has also some regrets.
01:26 He's just seen his sister again after a long time.
01:31 So he's confronted with his past.
01:35 Even if we don't know much about his past, we are also confronted along with him.
01:39 And so we feel he's looking at his future.
01:44 Not that he's so much concerned about future.
01:47 He's a man who lives very much in the here and now.
01:50 But in that last scene, he leaves us just in the same limbo you just described of.
01:56 Happiness, of hope, contentness, maybe a little regret here or there.
02:02 And after all, he has made some choices in his life,
02:08 and we see him live this life of choice.
02:10 And we feel he's been probably more privileged before.
02:14 He's not born as a toilet cleaner.
02:16 But we see the choices he's made.
02:20 The choices are reduction and not use more than he needs.
02:25 And be content with what he has and look at each and
02:28 every person as if they were equal.
02:32 And he sees the homeless just as well as the banker who comes into his toilet.
02:36 So you see his choices and you see that he's content.
02:41 And that he's happy with his life.
02:44 And that is something we're all longing for.
02:48 And maybe after the pandemic even more than before, and
02:51 we don't quite know how to get there.
02:53 And he offers a few ideas.
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03:06 [MUSIC]
03:16 >> Koji, could you talk about being in that moment?
03:29 Being so many things at once, a human being is so many things.
03:34 But to be inside this man who doesn't talk, who's very internal, and
03:38 yet shows so much love in many ways.
03:42 It must have been an interesting exercise as an actor to balance those things.
03:46 >> [FOREIGN]
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05:01 >> [FOREIGN]
05:11 >> There's also, and before I go back to Ben, Koji,
05:17 the aspect there's a sense of play in him.
05:20 He may not understand everybody's situation, but
05:24 he accepts them for who they are, even the ex-husband.
05:28 Or when you look at Kiko and the way she acts,
05:31 you interact with each character with the same kind of sort of empathy.
05:38 And sometimes empathy is a hard thing to put forth on screen.
05:42 Could you talk about finding sort of that rhythm, but also working with them,
05:46 who obviously knows so much about what he's doing.
05:50 And finding that balance in order to make the characterization organic.
05:55 >> [FOREIGN]
06:05 >> [FOREIGN]
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06:25 >> [FOREIGN]
06:50 >> We did end up shooting a lot without rehearsals,
06:53 because we just shot the rehearsal.
06:56 I mean, I was so happy with some of the things he offered me when we rehearsed and
07:01 then shot that finally after a few days I said, why don't we shoot the rehearsal?
07:07 Because this is almost always the most beautiful shot I could imagine,
07:12 so let's just do it.
07:14 And luckily, he allowed me to proceed like this.
07:18 And the film therefore got a different tone.
07:22 It is almost as if we are making a documentary on a totally fictional character.
07:28 And that is something I've never done before, and
07:31 I'm not quite sure if there's any example of a movie like this.
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07:46 [LAUGH]
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