Rating: 3.5/5
Wim Winders had to make a movie about those sick toilets in Tokyo
KOMOREBI - the Japanese word for the shimmering of light and shadows that is created by leaves swaying in the wind. It only exists once, at that moment.
Hirayama lives alone with his plants in Tokyo. Every morning, he has a routine before starting his job as a public toilet cleaner. He listens to classic rock tapes in the car and reads whatever $1 paperback he’s picked up that week at night. He carries an Olympus point-and-shoot film camera he fills weekly with Holga 400 ISO black-and-white film.
The film depicts Hirayama’s routine and some atypical days. Still, he finds the ability to walk out of the door each morning and smile at the sky.
Hirayama clings to a past version of himself. Much of the film is about him learning to love what still is and to let go of what has passed. With family, much remains unsaid, with only his niece, Niko, providing any hints.
You thought I was joking about Wim Wenders wanting to make a movie about the toilets? That’s exactly how it started. The Tokyo Toilet Project believed he would direct a short, not a full-length film.
The film is structurally pretty weak. Too much time is spent on establishing Hirayama’s rituals before the deviations are allowed to enter. From a screenplay perspective, they could have integrated the scenes more and cut at least a half-hour from the two-hour movie.
The soundtrack is shitty classic rock from the 60s and 70s. I hated every time one of his tapes played. It wasn’t until after the movie that I wished for shoegaze. I wanted a movie to replace Lost in Translation as a Tokyo vibes film.
Still, the movie has touching and impactful moments that drew me back in when I felt myself growing cold to it.
Overall, this is an old man movie by an old man.