Postman Blues (1997)
"Posutoman burusu" (original title)

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

Director:

Hiroyuki Tanaka

Writers:

Hiroyuki Tanaka (story), Hiroyuki Tanaka (screenplay)

Stars:

Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Keisuke Horibe, Ren Ôsugi

2 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Shin'ichi Tsutsumi	...	Ryuichi Sawaki
Keisuke Horibe	...	Noguchi
Ren Ôsugi	...	Joe
Kyôko Tôyama	...	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
Yôji Tanaka
Susumu Terajima	...	Detective Maeda

Storyline

Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off. Sawaki stays only for a short time and Noguchi manages to smuggle a package full of drugs into Sawakis bag. And, like that's not enough, accidentally his separated finger falls into Sawakis bag too. Because Noguchi has been spied out for quite a while by the police, they think that Sawaki has something to do with his criminal schemings and decide to stick onto his feet. When Sawaki bonds with the fatally ill hit man Joe, it's clear for the police what he must be: A schizophrenic-paranoid, perverse drug dealer, murderer and even terrorist sent from the Yakuza!

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Plot Keywords:

police | finger | yakuza | postman | bicycle accident | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Action | Comedy

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English French

Release Date:

16 August 1997 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Postman Blues

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nikkatsu, Suplex, TV Tokyo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

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]

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Crazy Credits

The entirety of the beginning and end credits are in Japanese, with three exceptions: "A Suplex Inc. Production" and "A Sabu Film" during the opening credits and "Directed by Sabu" during the end credits.

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Connections

References Pulp Fiction (1994)

User Reviews

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!