Love Letter

When I was in Taiwan during '96-'97, I watched this movie called Love Letter. It was in Japanese but it had Chinese subtitles so I could understand what's going on. It blew me away, 'cos it was the most beautiful film that I'd seen in a long time. When I came out, I decided to watch it a second time, that same afternoon! The movie is set in the winter of Japan, and the story telling and filming was so sublime. If you have seen the Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung's MTV video of his song of the same name, you would have seen clips from the film. Love Letter stars Japanese singer and actress Miho Nakayama.

The following is my abridgment of the movie. It's about this young woman who writes a letter to her former fiancé who had died in a climbing accident, at his old address. Mysteriously, she gets a reply. From heaven?

Reading this abridgment obviously cannot compare with watching the actual film (in the US, it's called "When I Close My Eyes", and "Letters of Love"), but I thought it is a lovely story, so I have written it down. Also, some details may not be entirely correct as I may have forgotten some parts. I hope you take your time to read this as there are 15 parts to it.

Click her to read the English version of Love Letter, with some accompanying pictures (not mine).

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS! IF YOU INTEND TO WATCH THE FILM, DO IT FIRST!

There's also the Chinese and Korean translations done by others.

I've just watched this film for the 3rd time in Singapore, Sep '99; they were having a Japanese film festival. It's as awesome as ever. I've also revised my write-up, so enjoy!

Disclaimer : The following write-up is my interpretation of the story as I've seen from the movie. It is not endorsed by Fuji Television Network. Shunji Iwai is the writer and director of the movie.