A complex, troubling, enigmatic film from He Jianjun. 6th generation director, banned last year with 5 others for filmmaking intolerable to Chinese authorities. We get an idea why in this deeply disturbing work about a mailman (Xian Dou) who begins to read the mail he delivers. Apparently unable to live an emotional life of his own, he intervenes in the lives of people whose trust he violates. What seems to be repressed (or, as we begin to figure out, what must be repressed) in Xian Dou's home life finds an outlet in his surreptitious attempts to right the wrongs he thinks he discovers out in the world.

And this outside world is one not often encountered in mainland films: prostitution, drugs, homosexuality, incest. Xian Dou's past makes him a marginal, alienated figure who can only connect to society at its unpoliced margins. Repression and freedom are at issue in POSTMAN, but the conflict is enacted in an eerie, ritualized realm of sexuality without affect.

The film's style is utterly original: both mesmerising and confusing. We sometimes are not sure whose letters are being read, why one scene follows another. Camera movement is unpredictable yet assured. There is an absolute minimum of dialogue, and much of the action consists of repetitions on themes (one scene of Xian Dou's female colleague pounding a mail stamp becomes a leitmotif that punctuates the entire film). Performances are uniformly excellent, if understated. The only disappointment was the sound track, which had an inappropriately slick, polished feel. But that's a minor flaw in what is otherwise one of the most disturbing and important recent films out of China. Essential viewing.  
 

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