Postman Blues is an entertaining story told in a refined way about the adventures of the conscientious postman Sawaki. On his evening round, he visits Noguchi, who has just chopped off his little finger to be admitted to a Yakuza gang. The pinkie rolls off the table into Sawaki mail bag. When Sawaki opens all the mail that evening in a testy and drunken fit, he loses Noguchi’s little finger. That is a problem because Noguchi’s Yakuza boss wants the pinkie to prevent Noguchi getting it put back on later in secret. In the meantime, the police are keeping a close watch on Noguchi’s house, so the postman changes from one day to the next into the main suspect in a murder and drugs case. This is but one of the many absurd storylines in the film.The corrupt postman as narrative trick: He Yi (Postman) and Pål Sletaune (Junk Mail, see elsewhere in the catalogue) led the way for Sabu. Supported by a very inventive plot emerging from that one evening when the postman opened the mail, Postman Blues is above all a hilarious film, filled with super-cool humour. For instance there is the wild pursuit on bicycles and we get a glimpse of the National Hitmen Contest. The police are extremely stupid, the Yakuza only a little cleverer, but they too are ridiculed by Sabu. One of them: ‘A hitman has to follow the music in his head. Music determines how the attack will look.’
