Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

politic1983 SABU's second film perhaps doesn't learn from some of the naivety of his debut. 'Dangan Ranna' starts off with an interesting premise, though as the film gets towards its conclusion, it starts to fall off. Like 'Monday' coming after it, the idea is a satire of modern life, though by 'Monday', SABU had matured into a more rounded filmmaker, whereas with this 1997 effort, there were still some areas that required some work. Sawaki is a postman, hence the title, bored of his life and his role as society's servant. Working late, he unwittingly stumbles across his former classmate, now yakuza, Noguchi as he performs that age- old yakuza ritual to atone for his errors. Noguchi tells Sawaki of how his yakuza lifestyle gives him daily excitement, which Sawaki has long since lost. Taking heed of Noguchi's words, Sawaki then drinks himself into a drunken stupor, tearing up undelivered letters, stealing any money he finds and reading people's most personal letters. Though unbeknownst to him, Noguchi snuck a brick of naughty powder into his postman bag, causing the police to follow him, believing him to be a drug runner. It's from this point that Sawaki's life gets a little daily excitement back in it. The first half an hour is relatively dark with brief moments of laughter, creating the negative portrait of Sawaki's life and the role of the postman in society. It's all very bleak. Though when the police become involved, with their over-the-top and unfounded suspicions regarding his dull life, the film has a more mainstream feel, part- love story, part foolish comedy. It's here, much like 'Dangan Ranna', with the introduction of further characters that the film starts to become a little confused and, at times, a little silly. I always find that the funniest films are those that are largely serious, though throw in light moments here and there to show that they're not taking themselves too seriously. 'Dangan Ranna' and 'Monday' are successful in being humorous in this way. Though in 'Postman Blues' there are more deliberate attempts to be funny, and as a result, the film is less funny overall, in the way that Kitano's 'Hana-bi' is more humorous than his comedy 'Getting Any?''Postman Blues', therefore, isn't quite as charming as SABU's other early efforts, though it clearly tries to be. His love interest in cancer patient, Sayoko, has moments, but also feels a bit clichéd with musical montages. The bumbling police and their over- imagination as to Sawaki's life, are a satire of modern society's jumping to conclusions without any evidence, though perhaps become a little too much, as criminologists are brought in to suggest sexual perversions and a possible history of murder. Their actions then start to become inexplicable towards the end. Perhaps I'm being a little down on 'Postman Blues' though. Again, this is a film based on good ideas to explore, with moments of sadness about how the modern world works, as well as the odd funny moment and references to 'Leon' and 'Chungking Express'. 'Postman Blues' shows a filmmaker with ideas galore, though maybe needing a little more tightening in certain areas. From what I've seen of his subsequent works, lucky SABU is a director that can deliver. politic1983.blogspot.co.uk

dbborroughs Bored postman runs into an old school chum when making his rounds only to discover that he's now a member of the Yakuza (and being watched by the police who take an interest in the postman as a result). Spurred on by his friends tales about living a life where your heart beats fast our hero goes home and opens some of the undelivered mail. He becomes infatuated with a young girl who is dying in a hospital and he goes to meet her, making the acquaintance not only of the girl but a hit-man in the process… This is a good off kilter comedy that was my first introduction to the films of actor/director Sabu. I've seen him in some of the films that he's acted in but this was the first time I had seen a film he directed. I wasn't sure if the film was a comedy or not so there were times that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be laughing, especially with some of the darker bits. This is a very good little film, certainly the sort of film that would not have been made in the West where some of the shifts in tone from comedy to something darker are either frowned upon or not handled well. Is it a great film, no, the film is a bit too rambling in some sections, but it is very good. (This isn't to say the rambling is bad, some of the rambling sections, where our hero listens to some of his "friends" tales, are some of the more enjoyable sections, the trouble is that as much as you like them you still wonder where it's all going) Certainly it's worth a look for anyone who is tired of the typical comedies, even of the edgier independent sort.

Simon Booth 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.

omloflump I expected a comedy and found myself immersed in a predictable unbalanced piece of cinema....wait prehaps immersed isn't the right word..... Sabu really doesn't know what he's trying to make here, is it a comedy, crime thriller, romance? In my opinion this misses the nail completely in each genre he tries to conquer. Of course there are films that mix genres successfully, I'm not saying it cant work, but in this reviewers opinion "Posutoman burusu" doesn't. I laughed more at the film which, out of all the ones I've seen, I laughed the least at, henceforth this one. How many films do they make about the wrongfully accused? The romance element was tacky and short lived, those musical bonding scenes really pi*** me off and yet they are so overused in cinema, it's just a cheap excuse not to properly develop the characters. I am also sick of the much romantisised Yakusa films which I seem to see a lot of these days. The main reason this film is unbalanced is the inclusion of the sentimental violent drama aspect with the 'stupid comedy' aspect. Why would you have stupid cops who can't catch a guy who doesn't even know he's being followed teamed with overblown sentimentality when the main character is killed and he walks off to the afterlife with his cancer suffering girlfriend?? It's like combining "What's up doc?" with "Schindler's List". Aside from these criticisms, it does have some OK moments, the bicycle scenes were pretty good and some other bits were alright. The director has obviously tried hard to make this film and there are stylish bits that are well made but as a whole is just doesn't work.Choose a genre Sabu. 6/10