@article{ART003260644},
author={Seo Dong Soo},
title={Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2025},
volume={31},
number={3},
pages={213-241}
TY - JOUR
AU - Seo Dong Soo
TI - Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2025
VL - 31
IS - 3
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 213
EP - 241
SN - 1738-3188
AB - This study explores the significance and potentiality of solitude in old age within a super-aged society, focusing on Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days.
While solitude is often regarded today as either a hindrance to successful aging or a pathological condition, the film presents it as a necessary and affirmative dimension of life. The protagonist Hirayama, a man in his late sixties, embodies a practice of solitude distinct from mere loneliness. Unlike loneliness, which signals loss, exhaustion, and powerlessness, Hirayama’s solitude is a willful openness to existence that takes the self as companion. His repetitive routines and symptoms resembling aphasia and anorexia function as forms of resistance to socially constructed desires, enabling him to approach the being of things themselves. Through his attunement to the voices of marginalized objects, he experiences an affect beyond what the world offers, thereby creating a rich inner world of his own.
In doing so, Hirayama becomes the true protagonist of Perfect Days. The film thus reveals both the raison d’être and the transformative potential of solitude in contemporary society.
KW - Wim Wenders;Perfect Days;old age;solitude;loneliness;Totalitarianism;will;repetition;Aphasia;Anorexia
DO -
UR -
ER -
Seo Dong Soo. (2025). Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. 2025, "Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.31, no.3 pp.213-241.
Seo Dong Soo "Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days" Journal of Popular Narrative 31.3 pp.213-241 (2025) : 213.
Seo Dong Soo. Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days. 2025; 31(3), 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. "Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2025; 31(3) 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days. 2025; 31(3), 213-241.
Seo Dong Soo. "Old Age, the Will to Solitude, and Vita Nova - Focusing on the Film Perfect Days" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 213-241.
