Short Film Analysis | Salaryman (2002)

Salaryman is a film trying to show the mundane way that people live in the 21st century using the uniformity and clinic look of each of the shots to show this. Also Knight decided to use widescreen throughout the film giving the impression that the man was an insignificant part of a much larger picture. However, the main focus of the film doesn't lie within any of these themes. The film is made to focus on the struggles of Amnesia and to raise awareness for those who suffer with it. The films premise is a story of a man living in Japan trying to piece together the life he lives and person he is with the aid of a pocket camera he carries on him everyday.

As a growing number of people suffer from some kind of memory loss these days it is possible that the Director (Jake Knight) has either himself suffered from this or had a close loved one suffer from it and had to look after them, this would be what would lead someone to creating a film about this subject matter to voice this is an artistic, less blunt, way. Knowing, first hand, the symptoms of an issue like this would have given Knight a greater understanding of how to portray it on the screen. However, research could have been done through talking to people who have help people through something like this.

Salaryman was a well shot and well thought out film. This film was successful in dealing with the subject effectively and with empathy. They showed that the man was alone and was so small compared to the world around him, which created a sense that he was lost in his own mind. However, they weren't to blunt when they were creating this feeling instead they used the shots and the framing to show it with subtlety. An example of this would be the seen in the shot shown below. This corridor shows accompanied by the widescreen framing of the shot shows how the man is small and alone with clearly telling you but instead allowing you to interpret it yourself.

The first technique seen throughout the film is one that I have discussed before which is the use of wide angle and widescreen. This creates a feeling that the man is small and insignificant within the world that he lives in. It also gives the feeling that he is lost within his own mind which again hints towards the Amnesia that he is suffering from. Another technique use is the little amount of other characters in the film. Throughout the film the man is seen mostly on is own or with only a few people who pay him no attention. This helps to give the sense that he is again alone in the world and that the people around him do not understand or care about the situation he is in, which is how people with Amnesia may feel when they have it.