Southern Italy, the 1950s. For those born on the island, “the outside world” feels impossibly far away. Mario’s friends leave one after another for America, and only postcards make their way back to the island. Beyond the sea, in “America,” they begin entirely new lives. Meanwhile, Mario drifts through his days with a restless frustration he cannot name, skipping work helping his fisherman father with excuses of “feeling under the weather.” His father tells him, “America, Japan—anywhere is fine. Just get a job.” It is reasonable advice. Yet there are places inside a young man that reason alone cannot reach. Mario is searching for something, though he himself does not yet know what it is.
One day, Mario rides his bicycle into town. Pedaling along the winding coastal roads, he slips into a movie theater and sees a newsreel about the poet Pablo Neruda, who has been exiled from Chile for political reasons and is now living on the island. On the way home, Mario notices a recruitment notice outside the post office: “Postman Wanted — Bicycle Required.” There is only one qualification: owning a bicycle. This, at least, he can do. An old bicycle becomes the key that connects him to the world.
Hired as the postman, Mario rides his bicycle every day to Pablo’s house. Their relationship is awkward at first, but the distance between them gradually narrows. Mario opens a volume of Pablo’s poetry and encounters, for the first time in his life, the word “metaphor.” Though he does not fully understand it, he becomes fascinated by the power of language itself. When Mario confesses that he wants to write poetry, Pablo tells him, “Walk slowly along the shore. Observe what surrounds you.” Poetry exists within movement and observation. In walking, in riding a bicycle—poetry hides everywhere.
Did words change him? Mario falls in love with Beatrice, a woman at the local tavern, and woos her with metaphors. “Your smile is a butterfly spreading its wings.” The butterflies, roses, and coastlines that had once been mere scenery suddenly connect to his inner life. Poetry links the inner world with the outer world. And the bicycle does the same. The pedaling body remains inward, while the rider’s gaze opens endlessly outward.
Eventually, the political situation changes, and Pablo leaves the island. The letters that arrive afterward are little more than formalities, lacking the connection Mario had hoped for. Beatrice’s family criticizes the poet’s coldness, but Mario quietly replies, “What did I ever do for him? Nothing. If anything, I’m the one who owes him.” He borrows a tape recorder and rides his bicycle around the island, capturing the sound of waves, church bells, and fishermen’s voices. He wants to send these sounds to Pablo.
The young man who once longed only for the world beyond the postcards has now discovered the world within his own surroundings. What he believed existed only “outside” had in fact always been within cycling distance. Poetry taught him this, and accompanying him along the road toward poetry was a single bicycle.
Five years later, Pablo returns to the island. What he discovers there is something best received within the film itself.
Text_Hideki Inoue
🎬CYCLE CINEMA STORAGE🎬
#01 “The Bicycle Thief”
#02 “Project A”
#03 “Shoot for tomorrow!”(origin title “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”)
#04 “The Kid With a Bike (Le gamin au vélo)”
#05 “Izakaya Choji”
#06 “Cinema Paradiso”
#07 “Kids Return”
#08 “PERFECT DAYS”
#09 “Kramer vs. Kramer”
#10 “E.T.”
#11 “Gachi-Boshi”
#12 “Yesterday”
#13 “Wadjda”
#14 “The Zone of Interest”
#15 “Anselm”
#16 “Otoko wa Turai yo”
#17 “Kokuho”
#18 “Red Rocket”
#19 “il Postino”
Profile
Text＿Hideki Inoue
I am from Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. I work as a writer and editor. My hobbies include hot baths, skiing, and fishing. Although I have no personal connection, I am independently conducting research on Shiga Prefecture. I prefer an active fishing style called “RUN & GUN,” which involves moving around actively instead of staying in one place. Purchasing a car to transport bicycles for this style of cycling seems like putting the cart before the horse.
Illusutration＿Michiharu Saotome
Post Date：2026.05.21
