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When I watched this unusual film, I was mid-way through a BBC series called "Industry" which was set in the highly aggressive, excessively vulgar and entirely egotistical world of merchant banking. Wim Wenders' account of a few weeks in the life of a man whose job is to clean the public toilets of Tokyo, could not have been a bigger contrast. The gentle protagonist, Hirayama, takes pride in his work, is completely honest, and has a simple lifestyle where his pleasures are communing with nature rather than people.

Hirayama meets plenty of people during the film, but the sum of his spoken words doesn't get close to a Shakespearian soliloquy.

And yet the film has some very strong messages. His tolerance of the people who come into his life, and the way he maintains a simple daily routine give him the strength to withstand the assaults of modern life. This was the philosophy of Voltaire, whose eponymous hero in "Candide" concludes that the best way to deal with all the evil in the world is to cultivate your garden.

Now I need to resume "Industry". If I scream loud enough, I wonder if I could influence any of the characters to turn to horticulture?

It seemed like a moderately good idea at first but soon went downhill in all departments. Mainly problem is the ridiculous plot. It sets out to be realistic but very little of the action or dialogue is anywhere near realistic. Most of the characters are totally unconvincing and by the time I'd reached E4 I was wishing I'd stopped earlier but of course by then I needed to see how it all finished. So that warrants a couple of stars, helped by some decent acting from the protagonist James Purefoy, and a couple of the other leads.

I'd heard mixed reports from my choral contacts so I didn't have high expectations but was pleasantly surprised. At first sight, the sets and dialogue seemed unrealistic but it soon became apparent this was deliberate. The real thrust of the plot was to reflect on the horror of war through Elgar's masterpiece. A brilliant idea, which reminded me of some of the heavy irony in the poetry written at the time and in particular how that was also reflected in Britten's War Requiem. A few months ago, I sang the Elgar for the first time, and although I loved the music, the Newman words did nothing for me. But in this film the clever interpretation of the piece was extremely moving. While the underlying anti-war message was absolutely clear, Bennett's storyline had no shortage of humorous moments. Highly recommended.