Love Letter (1995)
Childhood love is the most nostalgic of all.
Presentation:
If you were impressed by All About Lily Chou Chou, director Shunji Iwai creates a familiar yet opposite film with a much lighter tone. Love Letter retains similar visual language with handheld blooming highlights for an ethereal feel, creating a nostalgic winter wonderland in Japan. Although itโs quite low contrast, the cinematography is deceptively strong with notable use of high vantage perspectives. This tonally feels quite similar to a live action anime due to its campy humor and overacting. Surprised emoting and forced shyness makes this feel like a silly feel-good love story not to be taken seriously. I couldnโt relate with the main characters and found it hard to distinguish who was who, but the flashback arc gets significantly better over the movieโs runtime. The soundtrack is iconic bringing you back to the innocence of repressed childhood romances led by cute teenage actors, though not wholly convincing.
Conclusion:
Despite the fact that I donโt like romance films, it was still evidently clear that this was a well made film. For those that enjoy the genre, they should be even more swept away by the movie, reliving or moving on from regrets from childhood. Itโs not my cup of tea especially with distractingly shaky handheld movement, but for those that want a light hearted love story this has more subversive depth than the fluffy snow covered surface may suggest.
Recommendations
So slow, youโll be begging this assassin to kill youโฆ