Love Letter (1998)

This movie describe some "love". Hiroko who lost her fiancé-Itsuki Fujii- goes to his parents' house. Then his mother shows his graduation album for Hiroko. She finds out old address about Itsuki. She jot it, and send a letter for there in jest. One day she receives a letter. This letter is from Itsuki Fujii. They start a strange correspondence. This movie is set the past of Japan. We can feel nostalgia by many scene. For example, when Hiroko jot his address, she jot on her arms. At the time almost of all people didn't have cellphone. This movie remind us the past. Also in this movie, there are two "Itsuki". One is the fiancé of Hiroko. Another one is Hiroko's pen pal. Miho Nakayama who act as Hiroko also act Itsuki-pen pal. So, this movie would be more difficult. The first time I watched it, I can't understand not all. However, this movie surely moves everyone hearts.

This movie's heroin is Hiroko Watanabe. She lives in Kobe and has lost her fiancé Itsuki Fujii in a mountain climbing accident. On the day of his memorial ceremony, two years after his death, Hiroko finds his high-school's album of graduation at his parents' house. Hiroko records the address she sees under the name "Itsuki Fujii" in the album of graduation, and decides to write him a letter. Amazingly, she receives a reply from Fujii. She didn't know who send the reply, she keeps writing and finds out it was not from her dead fiancé, but from a woman also named Itsuki Fujii who went to high school with her fiancé.This film shot in Hokkaido, especially Otaru. A lot of fantastic scenes appear in this film. At first, I couldn't understand well this movie's import. But when I understood love of two Itsuki, I was impressed very much.

This is a romantic movie for easterners. Though it is underrated on IMDb, it still stands out of the genre.Yes, it is very small and sensitive to a degree that, even some of my friends(Chinese girls) find it boring in the first place. But to notice that Love Letter is a brilliant multi-layered story; a journey about several people's life experience and the ties created between them. The version I saw was English-subtitled DVD, which speaks Japanese all over. It doesn't matter because beautiful cinematographic still caught me. And so many poetic symbols like dragonflies and snow mountains really impressed me.Overall, the performances are great and they are all common people instead of fancy faces with huge cartooned eyes.9/10

(contains spoilers) A woman, Hiroko, loses his fiancé Itsuki to a mountain climbing accident. A year later, she finds his high school yearbook. Not quite gotten over his death, she jots down the address of his old home and writes a letter to him (sort of a `letter to Heaven'). She does not expect to receive a reply because, to her knowledge, his old home has been torn down. But she does. It turns out that there's a woman with the same name as him and it is her who she mistakenly addressed the letter to. The woman happens to be in the same class as him in high school. A correspondence develops between the two women, as Hiroko, unable to let go and feeling slightly jealous, wants to find out more about her fiancé. Both gradually learn the truth more about the man. Oh yeah, the two women also look like each other.Strong points:-intriguing storyline, great storytelling technique and the plot nicely unfolds.-amusing scenes, especially those showing the idiosyncracies of the characters, helps move the story alonggreat winter scenery and camera shots plus a music score that complements the movie.not a melodramatic romantic drama, thankfully, despite what the title might suggest.good performance by the actress playing the dual role, although the story wasn't really demanding on the cast. She was cute, of course. The Itsuki Straight Flush - borrow all the unpopular books in the school library so that you'll have only your name written on the books' cards. (Not possible now that everything's computerized)-nicely played out ending. At first, I thought it was rather corny. The schoolgirls show Itsuki the drawing on the back of the library card. She's moved to tears. Yet, all that time the guy was to her only a boy who had the same name as her, causing her misery during her high school years. But I suppose all this time she chose to be in denial that the boy had interest in her and he is special to her in some high-school-nostalgia kind of way. So seeing the drawing broke down her denial and thus moved her to tears. Maybe the ladies can explain this. Will you be moved to tears if you found out that some guy you knew but don't care much about has feelings for you?Weak points:need to overlook some of the contrived coincidences. The main one, which is the pivotal point of the story, being that a guy and a girl share the same name and are classmates.the rather melodramatic climax where the grandpa carrying Ms. Itsuki to the hospital in 40 minutes and thus saves her life.the tree named after Ms. Itsukiwhat does it have to do with the story? It's rather distracting.I can rationalize why the movie is called The Love Letter (which screams melodrama), but I think it'd be more elegant to call it Letter to Itsuki or Dear Itsuki.Rating: 8.5/10