Part of one of three short films of a larger anthology film with the common theme of ‘memory', “Postcards from a Strange Place Called ‘Love' marks the sixth work of Steven J Martin and his crew, and follows in the footsteps of his previous works.
Filmed on Cape Cod, a man who is eventually revealed to be a former convict, is able to relive moments with his dead lover each time he places a postcard at her grave. As such, the 19-minute short unfolds as a series of vignettes that aim to both present a romantic story about memory, loss, and love, but also to highlight the beauties of the area.
The fact that the man speaks in English and the woman in Japanese is an interesting element here, that also highlights the “roster” of Steven J Martin's group, which is American and Japanese. The first aspect of the movie is presented through a combination of dialogue, narration of passages that seem intently like poems, and various images from the times the two spend together. Their first meeting by the pier, their many walks in the area, their lives inside their apartment which even includes a love scene portray a relationship of true love, that seems to have come as sudden as it disappeared, with this sense of melancholy and nostalgia permeating the narrative and creating a very appealing antithesis with the beauty of the images.
Talking about the images, the job done by DP Shota Uchiyama is exquisite, with him capturing the various aspects of the area with intense artistry, highlighting the idyllic setting in a way that will make any viewer to want to visit the place. It is somewhere here, however, where the most significant fault of the movie appears, as the whole thing frequently looks like an advertisement of sorts, with the rather intense lighting and the music intensifying this aspect even more. Steven J Martin and Ryoma Miki's editing includes many and frequent cuts, which give a rather welcome sense of speed to the short, but also move somewhat, towards the aforementioned direction.
Martin and Naoki Kondo, who hold the two roles here, are quite convincing in the way they portray their love, with their smiles towards each other filling the screen, in probably the most appealing aspect of the whole movie.
“Postcards from a Strange Place Called ‘Love'” has its issues, but in the end, it will probably leave a smile on the face of its viewer, which is where its true value lies.
