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 visually adjacent 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 crane shots. 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 follow who is 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 good story. For those that enjoy the genre, they should be swept away by the movie, reliving or moving on from regrets of childhood love. 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 surface may suggest.
Recommendations
Childhood love is the most nostalgic of all.