Shot in Tokyo, Japan; Salaryman is a 6 minute short film that tells a modern tale of the day-to-day life of a Japanese working man and his extremely tedious and repetitive life style.
This theme of a cyclic and mundane lifestyle is very well implied through the narrative of the short film as well as the dreary settings and simplistic shots and editing that is used. It very much represents the life of every working man, which is able to give the short film a sense of realism and practicality. Despite that our main protagonist—Shiode—is suffering from short term memory loss, it can be argued that his life wouldn’t have been much different with or without his condition.
Knight could’ve done research on Japan for him to be able to understand it’s culture, and it’s very strong and different work ethnic, especially in Tokyo. He could’ve also looked into the condition of short term memory loss, and it’s effects on people’s state of mind.
I felt that the use of voice over was interesting, and the monotonous voice of the character itself was able to set a certain tone throughout the film, Knight could’ve used this technique in order for the audience to understand the concept and possibly to be able to relate and understand the character more. It also adds an interesting effect on an otherwise repetitive and dry narrative.
It was an enjoyable watch, despite its repetitiveness, and I appreciated it's artistic yet realistic take on the every day life of a working man.
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