Postman Blues

Postman Blues doesn't fit neatly into any category, but whatever it is, it's terrific. Sawaki is a rather clueless mailman who gets mixed up with yakuza and as a result ends up being targeted by some equally clueless police who are convinced he's a runner for the mob. There are some terrific bicycling scenes including the ending, which plays like a demented western on wheels...without descending to cartoon territory. The romantic subplot is refreshing and the sudden intrusion of fantasy at the very end seems perfectly natural. Director Sabu (Hiroyuki Tanaka) looks to be a major new talent.

This movie took me by surprise. My expectations were low, not because of their slightly low budget production or anything of the sort. But because I didnt watch a trailer or the genres for the movie... I simply let go of my pre-curiosity for things, and watched the thing.

I would say that for people that are interested somehow by this movie... OR ANY other movie for that matter, let the expectations, reviews or genres far away from you and adventure yourself onto any movie, you will have a good experience I promise.

This film was Sabu's second, and shows many of this auteur's characteristic hallmarks: a concern with drastically ironic coincidences and misunderstandings, effective staging and a striking disregard for naturalism being chief amongst them. It was also the first time that the director used the excellent actor Shinichi Tsutsumi as his leading man. The actor was to reappear very effectively in Monday, Drive, and Unlucky Monday, his stoic face a perfect foil to the director-screenwriter's often bleak view of fate and predations of satirised Yakuza. Tsitsumi's keatonesque presence, and his various misfortunes, increasingly provide the centerpieces to Sabu's films. The weakness of Postman's Blues, to some extent, can be traced back to the fact that the dirctor has not yet found way to situate his hero best at the heart of an ironic narrative.

Most of the present film's confusions take place outside of the hero's ken. Until the end, he remains unaware and is largely unaffected by the game fate is playing with his life. It creates a dissipation of effect, and despite a number of marvellous scenes, it is noticable that the most effective of them (the initial passing of the severed finger into his mailbag, his delivery of the same to the Yakuza boss; some hospital scenes and so on) directly involve Ryuichi. Away from him, the film seems to have no heart: the humour occasionally seems forced, as in the case of the Olympic cyclist sequence, and events loses focus. Sabu has not made this mistake again, and in succeeding features his leading man is conscious of the events being set in motion – an awareness adding immensely to the ironic pathos of his adventures.

For a the best introduction to the crazy world of Sabu, which often reminds one of Jacques Tati writing a Fritz Lang movie, the interested viewer should seek out the marvellous Monday. Having said that, existing admirers of the director – who surely deserves a wider reputation than he has – should see this, as Sabu's misfires are twice as interesting as most other director's successes.

I know, it's a kinda old movie, but I recently found this in a shop and bought it right away. Of course it's always risky to just buy a movie because you think it looks kinda cool. But not with this one. I have to say, this is probably the best Japanese movie I've ever seen. It's touching, fascinating, funny (You don't even have to be Japanese to think it's funny (And that's mostly the case)), full of action and kinda crazy too. Believe me, you've never seen anything like this before. The story is full of little twists and you really can't predict any of the things that'll happen.

Of course it get's a ten out of ten from me.

People, watch it! It's totally worth your time!

There is no doubt in my mind that Japan is home to the most creative cinema in the world today, even if it doesn't have quite the same mix of artistic and technical virtuosity that Korean cinema has been providing of late. Many of the most interesting Japanese films are very low budget, squeezed out quickly by a small cast and crew and often not even getting a theatrical release in their home country. But they have been drawing increasing attention from the rest of the world, eager to lap up the freshness and creativity so often lacking in other regions' cinema. There are certain directors that have practically become household names - Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamato being the "Big 3" I guess (with Ryuhei Kitamura coming up fast). One director that has yet to achieve the kind of mainstream-cult success that he deserves is SABU (real name Hiroyuki Tanaka) - possibly because his films generally steer away from the kind of shocking scenes that gave many of his contemporaries their foot in the door.

SABU's films share much in common with Takashi Miike's films (in fact he may be most recognised as the detective in Miike's ICHI THE KILLER), in that they often revolve around the Yakuza and use their plots as a rough framework on which to build quirky characters and whimsical, sometimes surreal, scenes. But he has his own particular style that can be seen throughout his films - in particular he seems enamoured with people running - generally chasing or being chased, and most if not all of his films seem to revolve around such moments. Sometimes the "running" might be in a car ("Hard Luck Hero" and, I'm guessing by the name, "Drive"), whilst in Postman Blues it is mostly on bicycles.

The plot of the film is difficult to explain, as it's far more about the moments and the characters it throws up than it is about the narrative. This is true of most of Sabu's films I guess, which might explain why he often has trouble giving them a satisfying ending. Basically, Shinichi Tsutsumi is a postman with really nothing very remarkable in his life, pretty much letting time slip by. He's not even a very good postman, as he quite often doesn't even bother delivering his letters. Sometimes he does though, and this leads him to encounter certain characters in the film. First is his old schoolmate, now a Yakuza, then a sick young girl, and then a Hitman named Joe. These meetings trigger different chains of events that eventually come together and give POSTMAN BLUES probably the most satisfying ending for a SABU film yet. However, the ending is really not the important part of the film - it's the characters, their conversations and their thoughts and their little quirks that make the film very enjoyable and fairly stimulating for the mind. There are moments of absurdity that also make it very funny - it's the same sort of subtle/dark comedy that not everyone even detects in the films of Miike and Kitano.

I think I've seen 5 Sabu films so far, and the common theme(s) and style mean that they are all kind of similar, but all have unique and unusual characters that give the film it's own unique flavour. I think POSTMAN BLUES is the most satisfying Sabu film I've seen overall.

Unfortunately, Sabu's lack of international recognition so far means that it's difficult to find his films with English subtitles. His debut DANGAN RUNNER was released under the title NON-STOP in the US, but I think that's the only one that's had a legit English subtitled release. As usual with this situation, the grey market provides what the white market will not, and subtitled copies can be found on a certain auction site with little difficulty.