Josh Kim | 엽서 (The Postcard) / 2007

the postcard rings twice

by Douglas Messerli

 

Josh Kim (screenwriter and director) 엽서 (The Postcard) / 2007 [15 minutes]

 

Heterosexuals do indeed presume they rule the world in this gentle comedy about a young male postcard writer (Suh Inwoo), who regularly visits the local post office to mail out his cryptic open messages about desire.

     The first we read, “Your eyes, your hair, your smile, your uniform are nice,” through the snooping eyes the two female postal workers (So Yun Park and Sun Zoo Park) who read the open message after they encounter its “cute” deliverer. Both are attracted to the young man and vie for his attentions.

     But we soon discover, as the postman (Simo) delivers the card back to the sender’s own mailbox, that the message was actually meant for the postman himself, who when he reads it, realizes it is an odd sort of love letter. A stamp collector, he awards the writer by enclosing a sealed stamp within the mailbox.

      Our shy postcard writer runs down to the mailbox every day as the postman arrives and secretly observes him as he reads his posts. Later we see him showering with a kind of quiet sense of future bodily pleasure, knowing that his letters have reached their true destination. 

      From the stamps that we see the boy has now collected, we perceive the passage of a couple of more days.

       A few days later he returns to the post office again with a package to Japan and another postcard. This time, in the fight over who will get to serve him the other Park girl wins, explaining to him that he will have to put his return address on the international package, which he vaguely resists, but finally does. After we leaves, the girls again check out the postcard, this time even more intrigued when they discover that the card has been addressed to the very address which the boy has put on the package as his own street, building, and apartment number. He is mailing the postcards to himself!

     The new postcard reads: “Yesterday, I saw you smile when you read the postcard. If it’s OK with you, it would be nice to meet up. You wanna come over?”

 

     Realizing that they have nice smiles and wear uniforms, the girls presume the invitation has been sent to them, and the more recent recipient of his package and postcard determines to meet up with the young man. Meanwhile, the postman, delivering the mail, also reads the message and immediately begins to climb the stairs to meet up with his secret admirer.

      But when he reaches the hall, he discovers Miss Park standing at the open door, the cute boy facing her, and presumes that perhaps all the messages were for the two postal clerks, not for him.

     That evening, the Postman seeks out a public sauna to soak out his sorrows, wondering how he might fill the emptiness he now feels. Fortunately, the young man—so South Korean director Josh Kim shows us—is on his way to the same bath.

 

Los Angeles, February 26, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (February 2023).