Some people are better at loving the world than others.
Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) works cleaning public toilets in Shibuya Ward. He lives in Sumida Ward, where the Sky Tree is nearby, and drives back and forth between Shibuya Ward and home every day.
On his days off, he spends his time developing the film from the camera that he used to take pictures of the sun shining through the trees and receiving the previous development, buying 100-yen novels at a used book store, and relaxing to the singing voice of his mother (Sayuri Ishikawa) at his favorite izakaya (Japanese-style bar).
In words, every day seems to be a repetition of the same thing, but for Hirayama, he lives happily, appreciating the world every day. This is evident in his gestures and smile.
Yes, he is very good at loving the world.
He loves music. He loves time to read novels. He loves plants. He loves the sun shining through the trees and the shimmering shadows of leaves and branches. He takes pride in cleaning toilets and even loves people with bad attitudes.
Writing like this makes him sound like a saint, but he never portrays himself that way, which is very clever.
(The scene in which he expresses his displeasure at the fact that his shift is so full that his time is cut short is symbolic.)
Many of you may have seen Hirayama's daily life and felt that it was close to your own.
On the other hand, those who did not find it interesting or felt it was about a distant world are probably not good at loving the world.

What is the difference? The difference between the two is clearly illustrated by Hirayama, his sister, and his niece.
The following contains spoilers, but I feel that nothing so much as a spoiler exists.
It is similar to the fact that there are no spoilers in my days or yours.

■Whether you live bound to society or spend your time melting into the world

Whether one is good at loving the world or not can be compared to whether one can taste the world or not, whether one can escape from society or not.
The world] refers to the entire universe, including not only matter but also spirit and thought, past, present, and future, visible and invisible, touchable and untouchable.
Society] refers to matter and all intervening accessible things.

Hirayama does not seem to have a specific religion, but the way he spends his days makes him seem like a devout monk.
He has faith in this world.
Contrary to Hirayama, his younger sister (Yumi Aso) is portrayed as an extremely social being.
The younger sister, who has followed in the footsteps of her wealthy father, is a resident of a different world from that of her older brother Hirayama. She drives a luxury car with a driver. When she learns that her brother's job is to clean public toilets, she looks uncomfortable. He is uncomfortable because he assumes that rich people are better than toilet cleaners.
The film is clever in that it never portrays the younger sister as an obnoxious person.
Hirayama has strong feelings for his sister, he loves his niece, and his niece's humanity conveys the excellence of his sister's parenting. The only difference between Hirayama and his sister is the world they live in.
In other words, Hirayama can only live in [the world], while his sister and his wealthy father can only live in [society].

Then, which inhabitant is the niece Nico (Yusa Nakano)?
It is depicted as a being who feels uncomfortable in society and wants to live in the world.

■Whether you live bound to society or spend your time melting into the world

Whether one is good at loving the world or not can be compared to whether one can taste the world or not, whether one can escape from society or not.
【The world】 refers to the entire universe, including not only matter but also spirit and thought, past, present, and future, visible and invisible, touchable and untouchable.
【Society】 refers to matter and all intervening accessible things.

Hirayama does not seem to have a specific religion, but the way he spends his days makes him seem like a devout monk.
He has faith in this world.
Contrary to Hirayama, his younger sister (Yumi Aso) is portrayed as an extremely social being.
The younger sister, who has followed in the footsteps of her wealthy father, is a resident of a different world from that of her older brother Hirayama. She drives a luxury car with a driver. When she learns that her brother's job is to clean public toilets, she looks uncomfortable. He is uncomfortable because he assumes that rich people are better than toilet cleaners.
The film is clever in that it never portrays the younger sister as an obnoxious person.
Hirayama has strong feelings for his sister, he loves his niece, and his niece's humanity conveys the excellence of his sister's parenting. The only difference between Hirayama and his sister is the world they live in.
In other words, Hirayama can only live in [the world], while his sister and his wealthy father can only live in [society].

Then, which inhabitant is the niece Nico (Yusa Nakano)?
It is depicted as a being who feels uncomfortable in society and wants to live in the world.

■Nico lives between society and the world

Nico ran away from home after a fight with her mother and came to live with Hirayama.
When Hirayama hears this, he says, "What's that?" and his cheeks relax.
Perhaps Nico had sniffed out from an early age that his mother and uncle had different ideologies.

Nico sees himself in Victor, who appears in 『Eleven Stories』 (written by Patricia Highsmith), a collection of short stories found in Hirayama's room.
Having not read the book, I searched the contents and found that Victor seems to be a boy who was forced into the category of pretty boy by his mother.
Nico, too, was almost locked in a social cage by his mother, and he may have escaped from it.
When his mother almost took him back, Nico overheard Hirayama saying, "I might end up like Victor," and was chided for it.
In the novel, Victor later loves a soft-shelled turtle that his mother bought as a pet, but because it was a soft-shelled turtle for cooking, it was cooked, and he unintentionally harmed his mother. Hirayama corrects his niece's joke and gently tells her to come visit him anytime.

Once again, let us contrast the difference between 【the world】 and 【society】 in a way that is easy to understand.

Hirayama lives in the world. He is a being that can only live in the world.
He can look up at the sky every morning and love the differences in the sky; he can love the chirping of the trees and the shimmering of the shadows.
Hirayama's father and sister live only in society.
They probably value property values and want Nico to be a woman who is not ashamed to put herself out in the world, and they feel ashamed that her brother is a toilet cleaner.

And Nico will live under his mother, visiting his uncle from time to time.
For Nico, society is boring and he feels that the world is worth living in.
He is proud of his uncle's way of life, because it seems prouder and shinier.

■How to Acquire a Buddhist View and Look at this World in a Hirayama Way

I felt that Hirayama's way of life is very Buddhist.
I sensed this from Hirayama's eyes and also from his conversation with his niece.

Hirayama explains to his niece that there are many worlds in this world, and that some worlds will never intersect.
He suggests that he and his sister (and father) will never understand each other.
In the same scene, when his niece tells him that she wants to go to the beach and he replies, "Let's go next time," she asks, "When is next time? She asks, "When is the next time? Hirayama replies, "Next time is now. Now is now." Hirayama replies, "Next time means a certain date.
Next time" does not mean a fixed date. It may be that the next time may not come for a long time. But we make a promise to each other that we will go to the beach next time. It is not now, but someday.

Hirayama does not dislike his sister, and neither does she.
It's just that their worlds are different. They cannot live together because the world is different.
When Hirayama is looking at the world, his sister is pushing society on him, and the fact that they cannot live together is depicted in a very understandable and very sad way.

A film camera that sometimes fails to capture the image.
The physical expression of the homeless.
The sky.
The music on cassette tapes.
Public toilets that get dirty every day and clean up every day.
People living in a society that avoids Hirayama.
I am sure that my sister cannot love these things.
Hirayama can love. Because she is shot through with the awesomeness of this world.

While she was photographing the sun shining through the trees, her niece asked Hirayama, "That tree is a friend of your uncle's.
She said, "That tree is a friend of your uncle's, isn't it?
Hirayama seems to like the expression "friend" and gently touches the tree.
And this scene is one of my favorite scenes because it depicts my niece Nico's rich view of the world.

■The world is cruel. And the world is wonderful.

Hirayama's daily life changes when he meets his niece, her sister, and the ex-husband (Tomokazu Miura) of a tavern mom.
To use a cliché, it is 「meeting and parting」.
They reaffirm their inability to understand each other, and say goodbye to their sister, whom they will probably never see again.
We learn that Mom's ex-husband has cancer and probably has very little time left to live, so she continues her little journey of visiting various people. And we experience a best friend moment, but we probably won't see each other again.
Hirayama is living in a cruel world where he will never see his beloved sister or his best friend again, and yet he cannot help but love this world.
This is the expression on his face at the end of the film.
It is an expression that seems to be a combination of all of the above.
I don't know whether they are tears of sadness or tears of praise for this beautiful world, and they seem to be both.

Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" played in the car.
The lyrics of the song, translated into English, are as follows.

A picture of a beautiful sunset through a tree, one of several. A picture of my niece interacting with a tree. A famous book yet to be seen. An uncalculated encounter and parting. A game of X and Y with no winners or losers. A junior (Tokio Emoto) who has been buried in society.
Everything is lovely.
Naturally there are things that torment and hurt Hirayama, and naturally there are things that try to pull him back into society. Still, this world is rich and beautiful. And it is worth risking one's life for.

■Finally

Thank you for reading to the end.
Are you good at loving the world? Or are you not good at it?
If you are not good at loving the world, but you want to, this film will give you a very big hint.
If you do not feel anything or find it boring after watching this film, then you are probably good at living in society. That is very fortunate. However, I hope you will know that there are people who are not good at living in this society and have no choice but to live in the world.

It has been a long time since I had a very wonderful movie experience, a world experience.
I would like to thank Koji Yakusho, everyone who appeared in the film, director Wim Wenders, screenwriter Takuma Takasaki, and all the other staff members.
Whether you love society or the world, I wish you all blessed days ahead.