Excellent but underrated film

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I'm trying to dig deeper into the culture of Asian movies, and I stumbled over this piece called "Postman Blues". I thought hey, it's Japanese so it can't really be bad, can it? I assume this is the first very serious and "deep" Japanese movie I've encountered, and I have to admit that I was quite touched by the experience. The story's about Ryuichi Sawaki (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), a postman who's just living through everyday by delivering letters, a job he don't do well at all. The plot is quite difficult and anyone who's into common Hollywoodplots might get a rough time here getting charmed by the story. Anyhow, Ryuichi's job leads him into different events where he meets different characters, and those are the really interesting part of the film - the characters and the conversations. The story's development are really not that important, as more focus are brought on to the events and the details that surrounds'em. A very personal film and I really, really enjoyed it. Japan is probably one of the most creative countries when it comes to films these days (just look at all the Hollywood remakes, ha ha) and "Postman Blues" is another one that pushes the amount of Japanese quality delivers of today even further. A great work by thedirector and writer Hiroyuki Tanaka!

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.

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.

This movie took me for surprise I was expecting a straight comedy but I was wrong. It's a great multi-genre movie with substance. This film is about a malcontent postman named Sawaki(Shinichi Tsutsumi) who runs into a high school friend while delivering mail to his apartment. His friend Noguchi(Keisuke Horibe) a newbie yakuza who is motivated by excitement and euphoria, "does your heart race like it did when you were a child ?" he says. Which makes Sawaki reassess his life and job. When leaving the apartment he is spotted by two cops on a stake out, who then begin speculation that Sawaki is a drug runner. And the story takes off from there. I would to state how much I loved this movie and it had the best bike sequences I've seen. Also starring Ren Osugi as Joe The Hitman and Susumu Terajima as one of the cops(Anyone notice that these two are token actors for Sabu, Takeshi Kitano and Miike Takeshi). This one of the most exciting films I've seen and has a great climax. Sabu(Hiroyuki Tanaka) is a great director. Too bad this has very little release worldwide. This movie is original and funny as hell, the audience laughed the whole way. WATCH IT