In Wings of Desire, director Wim Wenders treated his audience to a dreamy tour of late Cold War Berlin with angels in overcoats and circus folk for company. In his new film Perfect Days, the German auteur turns his lens on Tokyo for what is, in part, a celebration of the city’s excellent public toilets.

A still from Perfect Days

Played by a remarkable Kōji Yakusho (winner of last year’s Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival), Hirayama lives a quiet life working as a toilet cleaner. Captured in close detail, his days are distilled to a series of repeating rituals. He wakes at dawn to the sounds of an elderly woman sweeping the street with a straw broom. On leaving his apartment, he squints at the sky, smiles, grabs a can of coffee from a vending machine, climbs into his van and begins his cleaning round. On his lunch break, he takes photos of treetops swaying in the breeze.

There’s no suggestion that Hirayama is in any way otherworldly, but like the angels of Wings...