Love Letter is an unconventional love story. Many people say it has slow pace but in my opinion it is perfectly paced. It seems boring first (I didn't find any part of it boring) but when story starts to unfolds it won’t seem boring. Unfolding of story is great. The storyline can be a bit confusing at first but stick with it and you will be amazed by it. It is touching and sometimes it is very funny also. You can feel the true love from this film.
Nakayama Miho is wonderful in double role. Sometimes I got confused between her double roles.
Its soundtrack is melodic and perfect.
Highly recommended!! Love Letter is an earnest, pure, sentimental, and undeniably moving film. In addition you can see really beautiful sceneries of Japan.
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Love Letter was a beautiful film in a wonderful setting and great plot lines. Though it was confusing at first, it still gives you a slight thinking that it has a reason for being like that. Then once you get to understand what in the world is happening, you’ll get to unfold what it was all about and why.
The film was very simple, not too dramatic or mind boggling. It didn’t even have any CG effects in it but it will show you extremely good actors, great story in the back ground and a really nice soundtrack to come along with everything. It also has this softness that has melancholy written all over the story but the sweetness seeps in with everything until it’s late to realize that you’re caught up with the story and would want more.
This left me weeping at the end but made me feel good at the same time. It surely made me want to recommend it everyone.
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Story: It is quite a unique story in romance line. I love the sweet moments between the younger selves. It offers a light and refreshing moments for the overall sad theme. I wanted something out of it despite knowing it is impossible. It is hard not to empathize with each of the characters since all are well-written. That is how good it was!
Acting/Cast: The female lead has done well portraying two characters; the fiance character gives a quiet girl vibe, sad and pitiable while the Itsuki girl gives out more of an assertive and carefree character.
Music: Didn't really like any OSTs from this movie.
Rewatch value: I will not rewatch it very soon of course. Maybe a few years later.
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This review may contain spoilers
“Dear, Watanabe Hiroko. Of course, I do remember him, but only as someone who has same name as me. And probably, It was not a good memory at all. It was happen since our first day in Junior High School.”I've been meaning to watch this ever since and to be honest, I don't know why I got this on hold for so long. I watched this film for the first time around 12 AM here and finishing it with tears at around 2 AM.
The film starts with a memorial service of Itsuki Fujii who was a fiance of Hiroko Watanabe. As she looks at his late's fiance high school yearbook, she finds out that his late fiance and his parents used to live in Otaru and that their old house was replaced as a highway. Hiroko Watanabe looks at Itsuki Fujii's name on the high school yearbook and decided to mail a letter to the address that she finds in the yearbook knowing it's her late fiance's old address back in his younger years. As she sends a letter, she didn't expect a reply but she did. The story of unraveling the past through exchanging letters and finding out who's sending the letter to her starts the mark of the past that Hiroko Watanabe never knew about Itsuki Fujii.
There's something about Shunji Iwai's film, it wraps around you with wonder with a sense of humility in each frame. The small details of character notion that tell about them and the height of the possible conflict as you prepare yourself to cry or to feel relief after that.
I did cry because of the dialogue and how the scene blends into it. I cry not because it was so sad; it was a cry of reminiscing to the first love that I never had; yes, something along those lines.
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The story is simple with a small twist. I guessed it and I sighed sadly when it was confirmed but it was a sweet sadness that completed the tale and was quite satisfied as I watched it for a third time.
What could have made it better? Perhaps a little more about the childhood and about the relationship between the engaged couple.
How I rate
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5 = okay, but will never watch again
8 = good with rewatch value
>8 = good with rewatch value and must OWN!
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Miss miho, who played two characters did really well in portraying two different personalities. Miki the young female itsuki did her part splendidly as well. The male itsuki wasn't really shown a lot of times but i feel like it was just enough for the movie. The supporting chartacters are amazing as well.
I love how both girls - fujii itsuki and watanabe hiroko - are leading different but there's a part of them that's not so different altogether.
The background music was on point for the different situations.
It was the first time that i didn't mind watching a movie with characters i'm not familiar about.
This movie left a pretty big impact. I'd love to watch movies like this again.
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Orchestrated to be mellow yet breathtaking, it brought to life a charming and beautifully crafted film. Its blend of a dreamy country setting and melancholic classical scores will either weigh you down or make your heart flutter.
A non-linear storyline and physical similarities between two characters may confuse you. But as their incidental conversation through letter continues. The story will gradually make sense and unfold a forgotten past. A sweet and innocent memory triggered by present events.
By then, nostalgia will leave you in a dreamy state. You'll sigh, smile, laugh, lament and shed bittersweet tears.
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Just one word.....Beautiful!
I was just going through its ost and I couldn't hold myself from writing a review on it........What a beautiful movie! the innocence of the first love ,,,, it's reminiscence depicted so beautifully..
The picturesque landscape of japan in winter captured so marvelously.... it was quite breathtaking and stupefying... just moves me to teleport...It was my first time to experience such an emotion while watching a movie I am crying but don't know why...It doesn't make me sad, but makes me feel warm... The feeling of missing something but not knowing what, simultaneously feeling happy relishing that feeling... the ost just pulls me back to its realm... it made me nostalgic...specifically the theme his smile is just so moving and heartwarming....
sadly was a baby when it was released... TT
I doubt it was even released in my country then!!
Hoping to experience and relive it in a theatre.....
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For a movie, where a lot of the plot happened in the past, it kept me excited and curious about the events, even though I knew what result we would be getting from the start. As exciting as it was, it also left me in a state of relaxation. This warm feeling that is hard to describe - maybe comparing it to sitting under a blanket with a hot tea in your hands looking out of the window on a snowy morning.
I fell in love with all the characters. Each and every one of them had such a unique color, I just sat in wonder, seeing how small events and situations brought them together and connected one way or another, at present or in the past.
The plot might feel bittersweet, especially with such an ending. For me, it was perfect. It shows that life keeps going, even when we are faced with loss, missed opportunities, regret or struggles. The same plot presented in a different way would have left me feeling frustrated and annoyed. After Love Letter, I was left with just one thought: what a wonderful movie.
What's more, it's simply beautiful. Maybe it just fits my taste and aesthetics, but I did hold my breath a few times, simply because I enjoyed the visual feast I was witnessing. Even though it was filmed 25 years ago, it could be easily played in cinemas now. The quality was just that good.
I cannot regret not watching it earlier. I'm sure my younger self would not appreciate it as much as I did today. I am still amazed how a movie could make me feel excited, curious, anxious, but also calm, relaxed and warm at the same time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Losing something you did not even know you had it
Love Letter is one of those movies that feels less like a movie and more like something that has always existed, something passed down quietly, the way families pass down stories, or pain, or love they never fully talked about. It’s visually stunning, yes, but its real power comes from how deeply it has embedded itself into collective memory. Like Titanic in the West, its scenes have been recreated endlessly, its emotions echoed across music videos and films. Even before watching it, I already felt like I knew it.And maybe that’s why I waited so long.
I knew this film would hurt me. I could feel it. And I think part of me wasn’t ready to sit with that kind of sadness.
Plot*
The story follows Hiroko Watanabe, a woman still grieving her fiancé, Itsuki Fujii, two years after his death. Time has passed, yet Hiroko remains unable to let go. While going through Itsuki’s old belongings, she comes across his high school yearbook. Inside, she finds his old address, and despite knowing that the house was destroyed years ago.
Almost impulsively, she writes him a letter. Maybe it’s for closure, maybe it’s simply because she doesn’t want to forget him. To her shock, she receives a reply.
The letter is not from her deceased fiancé, but from a woman who shares the same name: Itsuki Fujii. As they continue exchanging letters, Hiroko learns that this woman went to the same school as her fiancé. Through their correspondence, the film slowly reveals fragments of the past about the man Hiroko loved, and about the lives of two women connected to him in very different ways.
Watching My Heart Slowly Break*
As I watched, I felt myself sinking deeper into the story, almost without realising it. The sadness isn’t loud. It doesn’t scream. It creeps in quietly, through small moments and gentle discoveries. When Hiroko begins asking female Itsuki to share memories, the truth begins to surface.
Female Itsuki never knew. She never realised that the boy with the same name in high school, the boy who lingered, who always found reasons to be close, was in love with her from the very beginning. His feelings were constant, invisible. His confession never reached her. She lived her life unaware that she had already been loved.
At the same time, Hiroko, who loved him openly, deeply, and completely begins to understand something devastating. That perhaps the reason he fell in love with her at first sight was because she resembled the girl he had loved all along. That realization doesn’t erase his love for Hiroko, but it complicates it in a way that feels unbearably human.
What broke me most is that there is no visible romance in this film. No grand declarations. No dramatic embraces. Despite being called Love Letter, love is discovered only through memory, silence, and absence. Through things that were never said.
Female Itsuki, realising love was next to her and lost it before she ever knew it existed. And now, she can never go back. He is gone. That kind of loss feels especially cruel, the pain of understanding too late, of mourning something you didn’t even know was yours. This made me so melancholic!!
I don’t know if it hit me this hard because, in some way, we’ve all lost something we didn’t even know was ours to begin with. Maybe it was love, a job, a friend, or an opportunity. Grieving something you never truly got to hold in your hands, something you only realise mattered after it’s gone, is a unique, type of aheartbreak.
When the film ended, I walked outside and just stood there, staring at the sky, feeling hollow. Not crying, just… heavy. Like the film had reached inside me and rearranged something.
Acting*
Nakayama Miho, playing both Hiroko and Itsuki, is astonishing. For the first few minutes, I genuinely thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The resemblance was uncanny. I had to pause the film to check the cast. Yet as the story unfolded, I never confused them again. Her acting creates such a clear emotional divide that they feel like two completely separate souls, carrying different kinds of loneliness.
Otaru, Hokkaido *
And then there’s Otaru. Snow-covered, quiet, almost suspended in time. The winter landscapes give the film a dreamlike quality, as if everything exists inside a memory rather than reality. It makes sense why couples still travel there, even in the harsh cold, to chase a feeling this movie captured so perfectly.
Final Reflection*
Love Letter is not just a classic, it’s an emotional experience. It’s about grief, unspoken love, and mystery. It reminded me that some of the most painful realisations in life come not from what we lose, but from what we never realised we had.
Even now, whenever I see snow falling in Japan, my mind drifts back to this film.
And I don’t think it will ever leave me.
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MDL wants me to make this at least 500 characters though, so I have to write this little paragraph in an attempt to reach that count. My deepest apologies for this frivolous little paragraph down here that is wasting your precious time.
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Review: Love Letter (1995) — A Beautiful Film That Left Me Cold
After watching 18x2, which referenced this film, I was curious to finally see what Love Letter was all about. I’d heard so much praise over the years — how poetic and emotional it is, how it’s considered a classic of Japanese cinema. And as someone who genuinely loves romance and melancholic stories, I expected to be moved by it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.
Visually, Love Letter is beautiful. The snowy landscapes, soft light, and quiet tone give the film a haunting atmosphere. The acting, too, is subtle and sincere. But for all its beauty, I found the story strangely hollow. The pacing felt slow in a way that dulled the emotional impact rather than deepening it, and I struggled to connect with the characters.
One aspect that particularly bothered me was the relationship between the female lead and her new boyfriend. Instead of offering true emotional support, he came across as impatient and even self-serving — trying to speed up her healing so he could take the place of her deceased fiancé. It felt more like he was in love with the idea of her — or maybe even with who she reminded him of — than with her actual self. That dynamic left me uncomfortable, and the ending, instead of providing closure, felt emotionally unearned.
That said, there were a couple of scenes that really stood out: the quiet moment in high school when she tries to light his notebook with her bike lamp, and the rawness of her voice echoing through the snowy mountains. In those moments, I could feel what the film was trying to do — the weight of longing, the fragility of memory — but they were isolated flashes in an otherwise emotionally distant experience.
I know Love Letter means a lot to many viewers, and I respect that. I can appreciate its artistic quality and understand why it resonates with others. But for me, it lacked the emotional depth I was hoping for. Sometimes a film just doesn’t speak your language, and that’s okay. This one didn’t speak mine.
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