Jake Knight is a detail freak who's love of super-sharp compositions with tiny disturbances/disturbing details within the frame is his visual signature.

But what he loves he also recognises as a hugely deadening social influence. The size, scale, repeatability, replacability and homogenisation of our world saps the human soul.

I think the difficulty is that in “Salaryman 6”, Knight succumbs to what I term The Bertolucci Effect. Like Bertolucci's”The Sheltering Sky” and “The Last Emperor”, it's hard to be moved by characters who's primary function appears to be to move through breath-taking compositions and landscapes. Think for a moment if “Salaryman 6” would be any different if we never saw a specific man in each of the shots, but just saw miscellaneous down-at-heel workers going through the same scenes/motions, our amnesiac character just a disembodied voice over.

An interesting comparison to this mood piece is Jun Ichikawa’s “Tony Takitani”, based upon a Haruki Murakami short story. Shot in another very cool manner with extremely precise framing/dolly moves and simplicity of editing, this too is a tiny tragedy of a man stuck in a loop he finds almost impossible to escape. But this is a human story about losing a love and then trying to continue after that love has been taken away.

I await Jake Knight’s decision to stop thinking like Norman Foster and start thinking more like Renzo Piano. Architecture seems to be an apt frame of reference for Knight's structurally rigourous worlds.

Thanks for the comments.
Please note this film was not made to be viewed as a 2-inch wide quicktime on a computer, so you might find the actor is a little hard to see !

Very neat - and excellent framing!

I understand what the film expressed. I like the ending of the story which made me laugh a little bit but it means the start of another. My rate is "4" for this one.

I do agree with some of the comments already made - It reminded me of a sombre 'Brazil' - I found the landscapes breath-taking but had difficulty feeling empathy for the actor - even a close-up shot would have assisted me in connecting to the character - but finely done - thanks.