Make coffee. Shower. Clean the loo. In an age of choice, rituals are the key to happiness | Tomiwa Owolade

Wim Wenders' film Perfect Days is on to something with its depiction of main character Hirayama's calm, habitual life

Hirayama loves his routine. The protagonist of Wim Wenders' transcendent new film Perfect Days wakes up each morning and follows the same ritual. He makes his bed, trims his moustache, shaves, waters his saplings, and gets a can of coffee from a dispenser just outside his apartment before he enters a small blue van to head to work as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo.

On his way to work, he fits a cassette into his tape-player and listens to a range of popular musicians - from Lou Reed to Van Morrison, Nina Simone to the Animals. After his shift, he sits alone in a park with his milkshake and sandwich, and takes a picture of the trees and the sky.