Thinking About Your Thinking

Metacognitive Viewing Worksheet

Perfect Days (2023) — Wim Wenders

NAME

DATE

A DAY

B DAY

Your work is saved automatically to this browser as you type.

BEFORE VIEWING: Preparing My Mind

1. You are about to watch a film about a middle-aged man in Tokyo who cleans public toilets for a living. Before you press play, write honestly: what do you expect his life to feel like? Meaningful? Empty? Sad? Comfortable? Describe the assumptions you are bringing into this viewing.

2. In Convenience Store Woman, Keiko found genuine satisfaction in the sounds and rhythms of her store — a satisfaction most people around her could not understand or accept. As you watch today, pay attention to the moments when Hirayama seems most fully alive. What are you going to look for, and what do you think might make those moments easy to miss?

SITTING ONE — During Viewing (First ~60 Minutes)

During the film, you do not need to write continuously — watch. At the pause point, when Niko arrives, come back to this table and fill it in from memory and any brief notes you have made. Record what you actually observed, not what you think you were supposed to notice.

Scene Observation Log: Three moments from Sitting One

Moment in the Film	What I Notice (images, sounds, silences, faces)	What It Might Mean
Hirayama’s morning routine: how he wakes, moves through his apartment, and prepares to begin his working day
Hirayama photographing trees in the park: what he does, how he does it, and the expression on his face
A moment when someone else enters Hirayama’s world — a co-worker, a stranger, or a regular presence

3. In the first hour, very little “happens” by conventional story standards. What has Wenders shown you instead? Name two or three specific moments that felt significant, even if you cannot fully explain why.

4. Something about Hirayama in this first hour has surprised you — or something about your own reaction to him has surprised you. Describe it.

BETWEEN SITTINGS: Before Sitting Two Begins

5. Write down the one question about Hirayama that you most want the second half to answer. There is no wrong question here — it tells you what your mind is already working on.

SITTING TWO — During Viewing (Niko’s Arrival Onwards)

As in Sitting One, watch first. Fill in this table after the film has finished. If something strikes you during the viewing, a brief note on paper is fine — come back to this form afterwards.

Scene Observation Log: Two moments from Sitting Two

Moment in the Film	What I Notice (images, sounds, silences, faces)	What It Might Mean
Niko’s arrival: how Hirayama responds to his niece appearing without warning — focus on his behaviour and face, not his words
A moment when Hirayama’s routine is disrupted or tested by another character’s pain, need, or demand

AFTER VIEWING: Reflecting on My Understanding

6. The film ends with Hirayama alone in his van as a song plays. His face shifts — something moves through it. What do you think that moment means? There is no single right answer. Commit to an interpretation and explain it with reference to what you have seen across the whole film.

7. Both Keiko and Hirayama find genuine meaning in work that the people around them consider beneath them or insufficient. Where do their attitudes feel similar, and where do they genuinely differ? What does comparing these two characters add to your understanding of either one?

8. One visual moment from this film has stayed with you — a shot, a scene, an expression, a recurring image. Describe it as precisely as you can. Why do you think it stayed?

9. Your Turn: Hirayama follows the same routine every single day — and the film suggests his life is full rather than empty because of it, not in spite of it. Think honestly about your own relationship to routine. Do you experience repetition as deadening, sustaining, or something in between? What would it take for you to find what Hirayama seems to find in repetition?

Perfect Days Unit — Metacognitive Viewing Practice Film: Wim Wenders, 2023 Monitor. Question. Clarify. Connect.