I also wrote about Perfect Days and had some very different thoughts but I am so interested in this critique! Thank you for showing me this ~ film ~ in a different light. "Slow cinema’s allergy to language, the medium of communication at the core of what it means to be human"--"But even in a world where so much is changing, one fundamental truth remains the same: we depend on each other to live, we exist only because others have taken care of us, we crave the security of being loved and understood."--bangers!
thank you for the close reading, Mia! i went and read your review too, and thought there were some interesting points of connection, in addition to the differences. i think my frustration with hirayama also in part stemmed from his individualism / the seeming lack of effort he placed into any of his relationships, his refusal to communicate with others.
i think that if i went back and watched perfect days it’s very possible i would enjoy it quite a bit! perhaps i would enjoy the cinematography more, or i would find it a useful corrective to the current pace of life. but i think i would still argue that slowness in and of itself is not a virtue, even if it can be a useful contrast to the dizzying pace of the capitalist grind
thank YOU for reading! yes, hirayama's isolation was a real sticking point for me. and really appreciate your notes on how a kind of pastoralism and nostalgia can be politically unhelpful/harmful! reminded me of some stuff i've read before about how nostalgia can be both wonderful and inherently conservative, if you uncritically valorize the past. impulses i am interrogating more as a person who veers toward the nostalgic!
“A24-adjacent, card-carrying indie theater member community” hdhdjsj i can relateeee
I also wrote about Perfect Days and had some very different thoughts but I am so interested in this critique! Thank you for showing me this ~ film ~ in a different light. "Slow cinema’s allergy to language, the medium of communication at the core of what it means to be human"--"But even in a world where so much is changing, one fundamental truth remains the same: we depend on each other to live, we exist only because others have taken care of us, we crave the security of being loved and understood."--bangers!
thank you for the close reading, Mia! i went and read your review too, and thought there were some interesting points of connection, in addition to the differences. i think my frustration with hirayama also in part stemmed from his individualism / the seeming lack of effort he placed into any of his relationships, his refusal to communicate with others.
i think that if i went back and watched perfect days it’s very possible i would enjoy it quite a bit! perhaps i would enjoy the cinematography more, or i would find it a useful corrective to the current pace of life. but i think i would still argue that slowness in and of itself is not a virtue, even if it can be a useful contrast to the dizzying pace of the capitalist grind
thank YOU for reading! yes, hirayama's isolation was a real sticking point for me. and really appreciate your notes on how a kind of pastoralism and nostalgia can be politically unhelpful/harmful! reminded me of some stuff i've read before about how nostalgia can be both wonderful and inherently conservative, if you uncritically valorize the past. impulses i am interrogating more as a person who veers toward the nostalgic!