[Movie] "Seven Meetings" awakens a theory of the salaryman, with all its distortions and margins.

Recently, for some reason, short videos of "Hanzawa Naoki" have been appearing on my social media feeds incessantly. Guided by the allure of such recommendations (a perfect example of being comfortably caught in the web of modern algorithms, perhaps?), I watched the movie "Seven Meetings" on Amazon Prime. The original work is by Jun Ikeido, the cast overlaps, and I was curious about Mansai Nomura's eccentric performance. Before I knew it, I was drawn into a fulfilling two hours on screen.

For someone like me who has been watching a series of rather serious social-issue dramas lately, this film, which depicts the darkness of an organization while being crafted into top-tier television-style entertainment, felt purely refreshing.

At the same time, as someone who is part of an organization, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of nostalgia.

Within the giant creature that is an organization, there are distortions brought about by the race for promotion, minor acts of misconduct, and gray zones of breach of trust. If you have been a salaryman for a long time, you will have caught glimpses of such scenes to a greater or lesser extent.

I myself have struggled between my own sense of justice and the logic of the organization, and I have tried to walk my own path toward an optimal solution each time (though, as a result, I may have fallen off the fast track to success).

The cover-ups and data falsification depicted in the movie are, of course, serious crimes. However, there was certainly a geothermal heat breathing within them, reminiscent of the golden age of the salaryman—a time that seemed to say, "Can you work 24 hours a day?" (was that a Regain commercial?).

Looking back, what about today? In this world where efficiency (time performance and cost performance) is shouted from the rooftops, where the nets of compliance and harassment are spread wide, and where AI is in its prime.

For some, it may have become an "easier world to work in." However, in our attempt to cleanly eliminate all distortions, haven't we created a world that is somewhat suffocating, bloodless, and restrictive?

While I frown at the darkness of the organization depicted in the work, I find myself thinking complex thoughts, wondering if "perhaps even with those distortions, it was a good old era that felt human." After all, the smart and cold optimal solutions taught to us by the companion in our palms (our smartphones) are not everything in life.

SINGULATELIER
The Playful Lab of AI & Reality

*Is the world that remains after following every rule correctly and pursuing only efficiency truly the place we desired? Do not look away from the distortions of an organization. However, do not strip away the "useless passion" that humans possess.