solving tic-tac-toe
perfect days, 2023
i recently watched the movie perfect days and i found it so very beautiful. it's a movie about the daily life of a toilet cleaner in tokyo; i thought it would be boring, as i don't usually like the slice-of-life genre, but i found myself smiling the whole time while i was watching it. lately i've been caught up in so many things that don't matter all that much, and as a result i've been fatigued and overwhelmed most of the time. i felt i could relate to the main character, with his love for literature, old music, and bike rides. with all the things i've preoccupied myself with, i had forgotten about my love and appreciation for those same things. but even through the main character's tired eyes, he was able to look up at the trees and take a picture, enjoy a nice bath in the sauna, or smile at the shadows made by the light and the leaves. the movie was a nice reminder that enjoying life doesn't have to be hard.
the one part of the movie that i found particularly joyful was one in which the main character discovers a paper hidden in a nook of one of the public bathrooms he cleans. he opens it up and finds the start of a tic-tac-toe game. he begins to throw it in the trash, but decides against it and picks it back up to play. as the movie progresses, the game progressively gets played, and eventually ends in a draw. we never learn who this other player was, though they leave a thank you note and a smile on the paper. i found this little moment of taking the time to play a game with someone you don't know very beautiful. happiness can be so simple ... but so many people don't take the time to play these little games with people.
i remember in high school i would do something similar, where i would go to the library and put post-it notes on the books i read with my contact information on it. i was inspired by movies like love letter (1995) and whisper of the heart (1995), where love could be found in the names on library cards and drawings inside books. i was hoping i could make some sort of internet friend through these post-it notes, but many years later i never got a message. i suspected the librarians would throw away any notes that they found in the books. from my perspective, the person who put that tic-tac-toe game in the bathroom was someone who wanted a friend to play with, but couldn't find any. someone desperate for a connection, even if it was with someone they would never meet face to face. that was what i wanted, but it was something i never got.
in the movie, no one wins the game -- it's a draw. it made me think about how tic-tac-toe is usually seen as a solved game. the first player is able to win every time if they know the strategy. but like a magic trick, it's more fun when both players don't have it solved.
it seems like everyone these days is worried about optimization and efficiency, but sometimes it's more fun not to know the solution. basking in the mystery of simple games like this, even when they can easily be won, is what this movie seemed to say to me. people are too caught up in their own worlds, filled with busy schedules and deadlines. sometimes the path to knowledge and success can end up ruining what made life enjoyable in the first place, and i think that's something people should be more cautious of. we forget all too easily about what matters the most in our short lives.
when you find these serendipitous occasions of people looking for connection, don't ignore it. pay attention to the world. participating in people's little games might be what someone needs to get their hopes back up, or find the happiness that they so desperately need.