Posutoman burusu (1997)

Director:

Hiroyuki Tanaka

Writer:

Hiroyuki Tanaka (writer)

Release Date:

16 August 1997 (Japan)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Action | Comedy

Plot:

A postman is mistaken for a dangerous criminal by the police.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Finger | Yakuza | Postman | Bicycle

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Shin'ichi Tsutsumi	...	Ryuichi Sawaki
Keisuke Horibe	...	Noguchi
Ren Ôsugi	...	Joe
Kyôko Toyama	...	Sayoko
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sei Hiraizumi
Yôzaburô Itô
Konta		(as Atsushi Kondo-Konta)
Akaji Maro
Hiroshi Shimizu	...	Domon
Ikko Suzuki	...	Masayoshi
Tomorowo Taguchi	...	Profiler
Ryoko Takizawa
Hiroyuki Tanaka	...	Kurokawa
Susumu Terajima	...	Detective Maeda
Akira Yamamoto
Ryo Yamamoto
Diamond Yukai

Also Known As:

Postman Blues (International: English title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English | French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Suplex

Quotes:

[first lines]
Woman In The Street: [stopping Sawaki]
[subtitled from Japanese]
Woman In The Street: Mr. Postman, could you send this out?
[Sawaki takes the envelope and puts in the mailbox right next to him]

Movie Connections:

References Chung Hing sam lam (1994)

Charming and touching

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 the

director and writer Hiroyuki Tanaka!