Solid but needed a bit more

Essentially this is a 2 hour film about a man cleaning public toilets in Tokyo. If you don’t like slow moving cinema you won’t enjoy it. The film is very understated and meditative. Wim Wenders does this purposefully to show how our central character (played wonderfully by Koji Yakusho) is moved and happy to be content with just being alive. He’s ecstatic to see leaves in the wind and plants growing in the soil. That’s about the extent of it.

There are a few sub plots that don’t really develop fully and come and go quite quickly, but Wenders seems to be saying that there is no point in searching for a meaning in life – the fact we are here at all is amazing enough in itself. Profound but some will fins it extremely pretentious. There wasn’t quite enough here to be very emotional, or very dramatic but Wenders wasn’t going for that angle. Outstanding sound track too with some classic tunes.

7.2/10