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Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.

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

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

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

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.