Love Letter

This is definitely the best drama I have ever seen in my life. I must admit that i am not a big drama fan but this film just blew me away. It is more than a drama...it is very, very romantic without being sappy and it also has a small mystery subplot which is very, very intriguing.

The film starts out very slowly, leisurely in a snail pace but give it time. By the end of teh first act, you'll be hooked till the subtle twist-in-the-end (more on that later).

The film reminds me alot of The Double Life Of Veronique as it uses the same concept of having the two protagonists being played by the same actress. I've watched both and though Veronique is a masterpiece, this film is a few notches above.

Now the ending of the film is at once touching, intriguing, disturbing and very hard to accept. Some people might have seen it coming early into the film but it caught me off guard. It is not like "Teh Sixth Sense" or "The Usual Suspects" kind of twist ending but it runs along the lines of....man, i can't think of any other film which has this kind of ending. I won't spoil it for you but it involves the two leads and the one "thing" they have in common. Ohh....its tempting to reveal the secret but i won't.

Check this film out. Everything is top notch - direction, script, cinematography, acting, editing and the musical score. Definitely the number one Japanese movie in my favourite film list. I love it...you'll love it too.

Okay, at first view I had to admit the dialogue and the the intercourse between the people seemed rather incongruous and false, somehow very strange in terms of social relations and interrelations, but, the second time, man it's it just might be Japanese mental setting that differs from the usual Hollywood stuff, still, the Idea, I mean, I'm a Poet and appreciate this kind of playing, that s what I thought, but man, its everything but, its, just so true, and think about it sending a letter to a dead sweetheart, its sentimental but also very true in the poetic sense of the word, and the dualism, the way the persons intertwine, all this is very unwestern and refreshing, since this movie was the directors breakthrough in the west.

And well, in the summer of 2005 I didn't understand this movie, tried to analyze it as I watched, but then at the end when the music started I cried, all thru the credits, it was purifying, a very true experience a very true movie, very touching, very poetic, and VERY Japanese.

The best movie I've seen.

On the surface, this is a simple yet moving love story. However, through its twin protagonists, this film explores our relation to the past and how various parts of it may be idealised, suppressed, or distorted, in part based on our assumptions about others that usually go unstated and unchallenged. This latter point is reinforced through a subplot involving (female) Itsuki's grandfather and a past tragedy.

The film is very striking visually, in turns showing sweeping landscapes and intimately detailed portraits. Emotions are at times powerfully conveyed by a camera movement accompanied by a well chosen musical score. The limited use of a hand-held camera jarred with the serene beauty of the rest of the film, which no doubt was the intent, but I found it to be a minor distraction.

All in all, a very poetic missive delivered to us by the skilled hand of Shunji Iwai.

Itsuki Fujii writes letter for her dead boyfriend who died in climbing accident few years ago. And all of a sudden, she get's reply.

The movie is warm and beautiful description of longing for a lost love and nostalgia. Miho Nakayama is ever so beautiful and innocent, and her acting as both Itsuki Fujii and Hiroko Watanabe is just professional. I rather say, couldn't be better. The music and the very atmosphere of the movie is somewhat Japanese, it has something really distant and beautiful. In movie which deals with love, always good sign is that if it does have very few or none scenes where love is physical such as kissing or making love. This movie shows love as somewhat ideal very mindfull and platonic. Works for me, for you, I don't know. Really beautiful movie what I can recommen to everyone. I rated this 10, since couldn't find any reason to give 9.

Carl Jung said "What is not brought to consciousness comes to us as fate". For Hiroko Watanabe, the passing of two years has not lessened the pain brought on by the death of her young fiancé, Itsuki Fujii (Takashi Kashiwabara) in a mountain climbing accident. She longs for healing but is unable to let go of his sudden death. Fate intervenes, however, and a single letter she writes to her deceased lover as a whim sets in motion a chain of events that allows her to discover the untold secrets of their connection. Written and directed by Shunji Iwai and based on his novel of the same name, Love Letter is a simple but very moving love story about two people who must redeem the past in order to be fully alive in the present.

While looking through her fiancé's old school yearbook after the memorial ceremony, Hiroko wants to find something of Itsuki that she can hold onto, some token that will allow her to let go. Finding his name in the yearbook, she jots down the address associated with the name Itsuki Fujii and mails a short letter addressed to him in Otaro in northern Japan. She asks "How are you? and tells him, "I am fine". Thinking that she is sending a letter to heaven, she is supported by Akiba (Etsushi Toyokawa), a close friend of Itsuki who has fallen in love with her and strongly wants her to complete the past. To her surprise she receives a reply and, after the exchange of several letters, discovers that her correspondent is not a disembodied spirit but a very alive woman with the same exact name as her fiancé. Even more astonishing is that both male and female Itsuki Fujiis were classmates together in Junior High School.

While there is some initial confusion stemming from the fat that both Hiroko and the female Itsuki are performed by the superb Miho Nakayama in a dual role, each character's personality is so individual that any confusion is soon dispelled. As the letters continue, Itsuki uncovers some hidden truths about herself, her father's death, and her relationship with the shy student with the same name. Bringing to light memories from the past that she had long buried, she remembers how they were teased by fellow classmates for having the same name, how they developed a bond while working together in the library, and how the male Itsuki, checking out books from the library, wrote his name on five checkout cards saying to her in English "straight flush".

Sensing that Hiroko's quest for completion has reached a dead end, Akiba takes her on a trip to Otaru to meet the female Itsuki and to search for some memento of her fiancé. In a memorable scene in which, in the words of author Marion Woodman, "the eternal crosses the transitory", Hiroko cries out to the mountain that holds the body of her lost love, "O-genki desu ka? "Watashi wa genki desu", "How are you? I am fine", and the words echo through the winter night to be repeated by the female Itsuki sitting in her home miles away.

Love Letter is a film of exquisite cinematic poetry that explores the subjectivity of memory and the idea of redemption. Author Robertson Davies says, "One always learns one's mystery at the price of one's innocence" Like gemstones of coral and quartz that fill our life with joy, Itsuki Fujii came into the lives of two young women, then as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone, yet now both Hiroko and the female Itsuki have established a strange connection and are, in the words of Elizabeth Lesser, "no longer dead, but alive with something luminous and solid burning in their core".