Love Letter (Japan Version-English Subtitles) DVD Region 2

Directed by Shunji Iwai, the film starts with Hiroko Watanabe, portrayed by the elegant and graceful Miho Nakayama, mourning for her fiance Itsuki Fujii who died in the snow two years ago. To relieve her grief, she sends a letter to Itsuki's former school, which doesn't exist anymore, but surprisingly gets a reply from a woman also named Itsuki Fujii. The two ladies continue to correspond, and Hiroko learns that the female Itsuki was her fiance's schoolmate when they were in high school in Hokkaido. What she doesn't know is that the female Itsuki looks exactly like herself.

Hiroko decides to visit Hokkaido, and when she encounters Itsuki on the street, the sequence carries a poetic grace that I can never forget. The two ladies, far apart, look at each other from a distance. The crowd between them disappears from screen, leaving only the two Miho Nakayama and snow in the frame. The silence magically provides a moment of peace, a moment that has some life-changing power. Then the crowd re-appears and they lose each other in their sights. But they have gained some understanding about life and love from this momentary eternity.

Probably that explains why Hiroko shouts to the snow, " Itsuki Fujii, how are you? I am fine!" She has learnt to elevate her mourning and her love for the deceased Itsuki Fujii and let go of her emotional burdens. Her utterance is charged with emotion, neither sorrow nor joy. But this unnamable emotion can cause the audience to shed some tears. Like a poem, Love Letter sublimates strong emotions and uses the simplest and most condensed form to convey the most complex feeling, leaving a memorable aftertaste.