German director Wim Wenders was seventy-seven when he made Perfect Days, with thirty-four feature films under his belt. Perhaps it takes a filmmaker with so much work and life experience to make something as gently meditative as his latest offering.

Perfect Days centres on Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), a man not much younger than Wenders himself. He leads a simple life, and Wenders allows us to indulge in its quotidian details at leisure.

Hirayama cleans toilets in Tokyo, and he takes pride in his work, applying himself with great rigour. The unwavering methodology of his daily tasks extends to his routines before and after work. His breakfast never varies, and the journey to work is accompanied by a steady soundtrack of rock music from the 1960s and 1970s that Hirayama plays on old cassette tapes in his car. The nostalgic sounds of Patti Smith, Van Morrison, and Nina Simone contribute to his equilibrium.