"I'm a little eccentric so sometimes things don't go so well."

A symmetry obsessed convenience-store clerk tries to find his way in the world could be the description of this short film but wouldn't completely describe how bleak and miserable the world it presents here.The plot is minimal, the narrative more interested in the subjective experience of a man for whom a mis-arranged cannisters of Pringles and Fanta are a distressing anathema and who seems to have a painful crick in his neck he has to keep snapping into place, although you won't know this from his blank doll-like expressions (the only color in this world comes from Brands of eatables, which crowd the perfectly symmetrical frames like dark totems). Tokyo (or whichever unnamed city it depicts) is a perfect nightmare of functional architecture, lights and alienation. Eventually pesky people begin to intervene into this perfectly arranged world of lines and shapes, and the clerk has to frantically re-position things to their rightful places.
But things end on a more positive note, with the clerk landing onto his dream job. The crick in his neck though remains.

This Cannes winner is a simple sweet story replete with beautiful symmetrical shots. Mostly silent except towards the end, the film works because its absolutely quirky lead who has a very innocent face.

This short was winner of best short film in Young Directors Award Cannes Lions 2006, Film & Video Gold in New York Festival, Best Foreign Film in New York Short Film Festival, Diesel Film of the Festival in Raindance Film Festival. Official Selection of ResFest 2005, Onedotzero 10.

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