Love Letter (1995)

Director:

Shunji Iwai

Writer:

Shunji Iwai (writer)

Release Date:

10 July 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

When exchanging letters two women discover new things about a man they knew.

Plot Keywords:

Memory | High School | Yearbook | Mountain | Mountain Climbing

Awards:

14 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Miho Nakayama	...	Itsuki Fujii / Hiroko Watanabe
Etsushi Toyokawa	...	Akiba Shigeru
Bunjaku Han	...	Female itsuki's mother
Katsuyuki Shinohara	...	Female itsuki's grandfather
Miki Sakai	...	Itsuki Fujii as a young girl
Takashi Kashiwabara	...	Male itsuki fujii
Ken Mitsuishi	...	Abekasu
Emiko Nagata	...	Harumi
Kaori Oguri	...	Suzumi
Naoki Gotô	...	Ootomo
Toshiya Sakai	...	Driver
Keiichi Suzuki	...	Male itsuki's father
Tomorowo Taguchi	...	Female itsuki's father
Hiroshi Kanbe	...	Haruo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mariko Kaga	...	Male itsuki's mother
Kumi Nakamura	...	Hamaguchi, teacher
Sansei Shiomi	...	Kajioyaji
Ranran Suzuki	...	Sanae Oikawa

Also Known As:

Letters of Love (USA)
Rabu retâ (Japan) (promotional title)
When I Close My Eyes

MPAA:

Rated PG for brief mild language.

Runtime:

Japan:117 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Malaysia:U | South Korea:All | Singapore:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Nobeyama, Japan

Company:

Fuji Television Network

Trivia:

Scenes set in Kobe were actually shot in Otaru. Kobe gets very little snow, whereas Otaru being farther north (on the island of Hokkaido) gets considerable snowfall. In the scene under the opening credits of the film, Hiroko walks through deep snow to a group of houses downhill. She actually starts walking along the lowermost portion of a ski run on Mt. Tengu that terminates in the street where the houses are found. Otaru stretches out below the houses, with Ishikari Bay of the Sea of Japan on the horizon.

Quotes:

Male itsuki fujii: [Checking out books from the female Itsuki in the school libray. The male Itsuki holds up five checkout cards that he has been the first to sign like a poker hand. He speaks in English] Fujii Itsuki straight flush.

Beautiful, and platonic

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.