Soulmates is a myth about love that has remained alive for centuries, perhaps because we are all looking for it, because we know a story that reinforces it or, possibly, we have seen many romantic movies.
Cinema has delved into the search for perfect, magical and lasting love, and has shown more than once that soul mates exist and are in the places you least imagine.
If destiny wants a couple to stay together, so it will be. This is the premise of the LGBT+ themed romantic drama short film 'The Postcard', (Korean title 엽서/ 'Yeopseo'), written and directed in 2007 by Josh Kim, the Korean-American filmmaker based in Thailand, director of the film ' How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)', the yaoi drama whose premiere at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival served as this Southeast Asian country's official entry to the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for Best Picture in Foreign Language.
In his second film after 'The Police Box' (2006), Josh Kim introduces us to Suh Inwoo and Simo as protagonists in the roles of Boy and Postman, respectively.
The film revolves around Chico, a shy young man who is in love with a handsome and sexy postman, but feels too intimidated to even dare to look him in the eyes, much less have individual conversations with him.
Are you someone who often spends restless nights thinking about your crush and wondering if you're on their mind too? The most difficult and frustrating part of falling in love is not knowing if the other person feels the same way. This may make you wonder what you will do to get their attention.
In this effort, Chico goes every day to the post office where Postman works to send himself open love letters on postcards, only with his own address, so that they can be taken by the person who makes his heart skip a beat and who will wait daily at 4:00 p.m.
On a postcard he wrote: "Your eyes, your hair, your smile and your uniform are beautiful," and this causes the intrigued Post Girl 1 (So Yun Park) and Post Girl 2 (Sun Zoo Park) to start guessing. who is destined Who will all these shipments be for? Will it be for any of them?
Postman, who also has feelings for Chico, decides to knock on the door of his house after reading the text written on a postcard, but one of the girls at the Post Office, who mistakenly assumes that she is the one the letters are addressed to, he overtakes him.
Boy, who does not believe in destiny because he has always believed in himself, and in hard work to get ahead, will discover that he has been wrong. Fate will make Chico and Postman meet, that same day, in the least expected place.
Through the use of slow shots, dividers in dead time and a certain form of naturalistic narration, the viewer is kept in a state of suspense throughout the 15 minutes of duration, the same one that the characters suffer and that the viewer literally receives through the screen.
The first scene marks the ambiguity of the film. The presentation shows us that we are looking at a contemplative film. Nothing about simple identification. But a contemplation of a present, of a dead time even, in which Boy devises within himself a plan to attract Postman's attention. His job as a card dealer will inspire him to carry out his plan of conquest.
The film does not have a fixed tone, it is sober, melancholic, nostalgic, laconic. A tone brand of South Korean LGBT+ themed cinema that we could locate in the cinema of Kim-Jho Gwang-Soo and Leesong Hee-il, with their 'Boy Meets Boy' (2008), 'Just Friend?' (2009), 'Love 100° C' ( 사랑은 100℃ / Sarangeun 100℃), or 'One Night, Two Days', 'One Night', 'Baekya' ('지난여름, 갑자기'/'White Night' ), 'Suddenly Last Summer' (지난 여름, 갑자기/'Jinanyeoreum, gapjagi') and 'Namjjokeuro Ganda' ('Going South' /남쪽으로 간다), all from 2012, respectively, addressing themes such as sexuality, identity gender and being queer in a heteronormative and homophobic society.