2020 ‘ラストレター’ Directed by Shunji Iwai
It is only at their sister's and mother's funeral when a woman meets her niece after many years. The niece is now a grown girl. The sister takes on the task of informing the deceased's friends of the death while the daughter cannot bring herself to symbolically accept the demise of her mother. In the midst of all this an old flame messages the sister to say he is still in love with her, but is he messaging the living sister or the dead one?
ลาสต์ เลตเตอร์, rasuto reta, 你好之华日本版, 最后的信, 最后一封信, 라스트 레터, จดหมายรักฉบับสุดท้าย, 最後的情書, Last letter
Japan
Taiwan
Hong KongI
South KoreaAll
Japan
Hong Kong
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
there's almost a desperation in Iwai when he's looking back upon youth, you can feel his nostalgia in how his camera longs for a world that has it's whole life yet to live, open and full and free, it can be hard to watch. a murmuration of lost dreams and intent moving around on the periphery, not gone but inaccessible, reverberating around the edges, uninvolved. someone hurt this man big time, someone hurt all of us. and it is unclear if any of us will ever get any closure
I was here only for Hideaki Anno cameo, i ended up watching a two hour long ad about the dangers of catfishing.
Final Score : 85% 🍎
Last Letter. 2020. Directed by Shunji Iwai.
It was an entertainment pleasure to view Last Letter (2020) by Shunji Iwai. I have not viewed Last Letter (2018) nor have I read the novel but the 2020 version of this film has inspired us to look into both. Love, loss, and progeny of the loved and lost lead us into the dynamic story us to view Last Letter (2020).
Last Letter is about grief, journeys, life, love, happiness, domestic violence, community, school, college, and writing. However, in my opinion, the journey (arch) that Masaharu Fukuyama (Kyoshiro Otosaka) takes in the film is one that is heartwarming and intense at the same time. A high school reunion has profound impacts on his life.…
no one:
absolutely no one:
shunji iwai: ✨death✨
me: omg, more! more!
shunji iwai:✨depression✨
me: yaaassss!!!
I'll admit that I had a smile on my face for a majority of the runtime due to the novelty of watching Last Letter (2018) again with a whole new cast in a different country. Unfortunately, replicating a prior work is going to lend to comparison, and this was not the same quality as the first edition, even though the cinematography still shone and I got to revisit a story I loved so much. The chemistry and connectedness between the many crucial characters just weren't there, except between the young cousins, and I really missed Zhou Xun's portrayal of the overlooked sister as she better encapsulated the quirks and comedy and compromising position she ends up in as she pretends to be her deceased sister by accident. Due to this absence of chemistry and believability for me personally, it lost a lot of the cutting edge and tailspin quality of the original but was nevertheless a fun experiment.
First loves, loss, lost youth, writing. Kinda lost its effects by the end. Story had a level of intrigue for a while but eventually it lacked the necessary depth to make things work and the characters are alright but just little one dimensional. Still liked its gentle rhythm, the sweet score and the images which have so much bittersweet feeling and regret. Nostalgia will always be charming to me even if it doesn't actually move me.
"You see, a person's life... doesn't just fit into your stupid thin book." - Last Letter is one of those films that come close to the saying how everyone has a story, everyone is a hero in own story, everybody can be a villain in some other's story and how much of a first-person account can we really give when it comes to writing about someone whom we think we know most of, but is there any end to knowing a person at all?
Shunji Iwai's Cinema from my experience thus far thrives on the unparalleled feeling of knowing/unknowing someone, holding onto / letting go of someone and if love is believed as space and time made perceptible to heart,…
I recently just saw Iwai's Love Letter (1995) and can't help but notice the obvious similarities in terms of overall storyline. Warm, touching, bittersweet, and sometimes amusing. Hirose Suzu and Mori Nana as cousins/sisters outshined the veterans here.
would you believe me if i tell you i still love you?
letters are what we make of them; they can be perfunctory, or they can bare the truth of our soul. few directors understand the power of a letter like iwai, and it’s why his letter-themed films are so resonant.
even though i had rated the first film five stars, i actually didn’t remember much about it (since this version is a remake, i didn’t want to immediately watch it after viewing the first version). but as i was watching the second version today, i began to recognize key plot points from the original film - it truly is a faithful remake in that regard. however, while i didn’t remember…
In awe of Japanese film makers and their idea of romanticized teen life. I mean can people could be so warm and kind toward one another or is it just the movies ?
Last Letter is so warm. So profound. A tad bit saccharine and Incredibly sad at the same time.
Shunji Iwai filmography here I come.
Shunji Iwai makes those kind of love stories which lets you escape from the problems around you for two hours...He creates such painfully beautiful worlds like none another which you can dive into and satiate your souls...And his latest offering fits into that bill like the most sweetest of fragrances!!!
This recreation, based on a novel of his own, is a sort of philosophical cousin to his 1995 breakout feature 'Love Letter'...Still can't forget that initial unreal alluring feeling it gave me then and this new set of last letters almost replicated that beautiful experience!!!
Still not even into half of his filmography but seldom have I seen anyone creating such beautiful romantic tales with a godly blend of love, pain, nostalgia, tenderness, regret, heartbreak and hope...It's like someone has created such beautiful pieces of art just for you and you alone...Can't wait to fall more in love with the world of Shunji Iwai❤️
Tell me the same story again and i'd still cry, that's the brilliance of Iwai.
And look at Suzu Hirose's superior beauty!
