Love Letter (1995)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

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.

Implicit and touching and beautiful

No doubt, it's my permanent favorite love story. Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé died in a climb accident, she misses him so much, one day after her fiancé's(Itsuki Fujii) funeral, she had an idea to send a letter to his hometown and the address is already inexistent. She calls the letter to heaven. Unexpectedly, she get reply. Of course, she feels so weird and decides to visit the town. Finally, she finds the girl who sent the letter. She shocked when she see the girl since they have definitely same look and the love story is portrayed from here. Her fiancé has the same name of the girl, Itsuki Fujii. He loved the girl so deep, but he never reveal his mind, he hided his love in mind. He would be Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé just because they have same look. In the end, female Itsuki Fujii understand his love, she receives a book-borrow card and see her drawing painted by male Itsuki Fujii. But everything's gone. I heard of a number of girls ask their boyfriends do you really love me or just love somebody else looks like me when they leave cinema. It's surely a joke. The movie tells a very tragic story, but still beautiful. I saw the aesthetic sensibility just belongs to oriental. The story moves not very fast, but I can taste an implicit feeling, no sexuality no action scene no drugs even no kiss. Do you believe a Hollywoodized love story could be without all these elements, my answer is absolutely impossible. Love could be simple but not means kinda boring if only it's genuine. It brought tears first time when I watching a film. Thanks for the director Shunji Iwai, he brought an unique oriental style to the world. I also wanna look his APRIL STORY， I assure that's another excellent movie. 10 out of 10.