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Short Film Review: Storage Man (2022) by Tatsuro Manno

‘Hang in there…don’t give up.’

There's nothing particularly new about 's “” in its comment on global economic crises and the gig economy. Both are subjects tackled – and handled well – before, in works such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa's “Tokyo Sonata” (2008) and Ken Loach's “Sorry We Missed You” (2019), to name just a couple of examples. Manno's piece, however, very much has COVID in mind, destroying more than just health, but entire lives.

“Storage Man” is screening at

Takashi () has lost his job as his company struggles to cope with the financial impact of COVID. As such, he spends his days at home looking for work online, downing beers as he does. His wife Akiko () is far from pleased, as are her parents who demand their divorce, leaving Takashi out on the street, without a wife, daughter, income or home. Walking past a storage space rental, he spies a temporary solution to his problem, but it only creates more difficulties.

There is a lot crammed into “Storage Man's” 40 minutes, looking at the financial impact of COVID; the patriarchal society where the man must be seen as the key breadwinner, or else; the ease at which people can slip between the cracks in Japan, forced into unconventional lifestyles and left invisible; and suicide.

As such, Manno's short feels like something of a forerunner for future COVID-impact films, with the need to get all ideas out at once. But COVID brought with it a lot of problems. Usual options, such as manga cafes are out, closed due to the pandemic, and so Takashi is forced into a tiny storage space that has to serve as his bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living area and dining room, but only between the hours of 9PM to 9AM, when the staff are away. This results in a darkly comic moment in which Takashi's lowest point is reached, which Manno handles well, leaving Takashi almost dignified in the indignity.

There is almost a laugh at Takashi finding he is not alone in his plight, but part of a serviced apartments community living within the storage space, as others have also made it their home. Old hands show him the ropes, but Takashi is drawn to the enigmatic Yumiko (also Seto) who resembles his ex-wife and he dreams of living a day as a normal man again.

Takashi is an everyman who is far from perfect, making various mistakes, which elicits sympathy. He is far from a bad man, and so his plight seems all the easier to believe, played well by Renge, though wobbles a little at points of more extreme emotion.

One difficulty with “Storage Man” is that with packing so much in, it moves things along at a fast pace with big tonal switches. A lot is dark, with a matching slow soundtrack, though has a more jovial, can-do feel as Takashi starts a job with Uber Eats and earns money to put his life back together.

However, the weakest point is reserved for the conclusion which feels far too forced, with the banality of a public service announcement video. Hitting his lowest ebb, Takashi leans on old college friend Makoto () who has his own successful business. The closing message of ‘Hang in there…don't give up' feels far too directed at the audience, and indeed wider Japanese society as a whole. It's a little too easy, a little too hopeful, a little too convenient for a pandemic which has caused so many inconveniences, and so much more.

About the author

Andrew Thayne

Born in Luton, Gross Britannia, my life ambition was to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. But, as I entered my teens, after being introduced to the films of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (at an illegal age, I might add), it soon dawned on me that this ambition was merely a liking for the kung-fu genre. On being exposed to the works of Akira Kurosawa, Wong Kar-wai, Yimou Zhang and Katsuhiro Otomo while still at a young age, this liking grew into a love of Asian cinema in general.

When not eating dry cream crackers, I like to critique footballing performances, drink a beer, pretend to master the Japanese and Hungarian languages and read a book.

I have a lot of sugar in my diet, but not much salt.

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