Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Howard Schumann 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".

Jonathan (mysteryegg) This love story begins with a memorial service for Watanabe Hiroko's ex-boyfriend, Fujii Itsuki. Although he has been dead for a year, it still feels awkward when the dead ex-boyfriend's best friend begins to flirt with Watanabe. Around this time, she decides to send a letter to the old Fujii residence, despite having been demolished for highway construction.I think it's essential for anybody who watches this film to realize that after this point, a second character is introduced who is played by the same actress who plays Watanabe Hiroko. She has a cold when making her first appearance, so this is the best means of distinguishing between the two characters, besides their respective settings.The love story is very culturally Japanese (modern), with the natural reactions of the characters representing very accurately current gender roles and attitudes in Japan. I believe however the story's beauty can be easily appreciated worldwide.

Hao Zhuang 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.

Meganeguard Iwai Shunji's first film to receive high critical acclaim, _Love Letter_ is a gorgeous movie starring the lovely Nakayama Miho in two roles that of Watanabe Hiroko,a young woman who loss her fiancé in a mountaineering accident and Fujii Itsuki a librarian fighting a truly nasty cold.After going to memorial service to honor her dead fiancé, Hiroko travels with her would have been mother-in-law to her house. There she looks in her deceased fiancé's junior high school year book and discovers that he was from Otaru, a town in Hokkaido, and she copies down his address that was listed in the reference in the back of the book.For sentimental reasons sends a letter to her dead fiancé's, Fujii Itsuki's, old home. What's this? Didn't I write earlier that Fujii Itsuki was a woman? Well, she is. There were two students named "Fujii Itsuki" at the junior high school. After a dumbfounded Itsuki receives the letter, she responds to it. Hiroko, obviously not expecting to receive a letter, is happy to receive one, and, in the cloud of her fiancé's memory, believes that it might actually be from him.Her new romantic interest Akiba, Toyokawa Etsushi, although he too mourns the loss of his friend, he was on the same moutaineering trip, he wants Hiroko to release the memory of her dead fiancé and accept him as her only romantic interest.After Akiba and Hiroko learn that this Itsuki is a female, they travel to Otaru and search for her. Although Hiroko and Itsuki do encounter each other, they do not converse, but soon after Hiroko returns home, she and Itsuki begin a long term exchange of letters in which Itsuki dictates all of her memories of the male Fujii Itsuki.This a very moving film that shows off the beauty of northern Japan quite well. The snow covered landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. This movie is quite melancholy, not only because of the grief Hiroko experiences because she loss her fiancé, but also because of some of the revelations she makes after corresponding with the female Itsuki for so long. Itsuki's story is quite sad also because she learns things of the past that were not clear to her at the time she was a junior high school student.However, that does not mean that this film is without humor. Nakayama Miho does a wonderful job acting the part of the bubbly Itsuki whose attitude towards people and surroundings is a breath of fresh air in comparison to Watanabe Hiroko. A great film.