{"id":34593,"date":"2026-06-19T15:23:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=34593"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:25:31","slug":"love-letter-exclusive-interview-with-writer-director-shunji-iwai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=34593","title":{"rendered":"“Love Letter” : Exclusive Interview with Writer\/Director Shunji Iwai"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Love Letter<\/strong> : Despite the years that have passed, Hiroko Watanabe (Miho Nakayama) is still grieving the death of her fianc\u00e9, who died unexpectedly while climbing a mountain. When Hiroko discovers her deceased lover’s childhood address, she impulsively writes to him, and is shocked to receive a letter in reply. However, the note’s author is Itsuki Fujii (also Nakayama), a young woman who shares the same name as Hiroko’s late boyfriend. As the two women exchange letters, they begin an unusual relationship.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Director<\/strong> : Shunji Iwai<\/div>\n
Screenwriter<\/strong> : Shunji Iwai<\/div>\n
Distributor<\/strong> : Fine Line Features<\/div>\n
Production Co<\/strong> : Fuji Television Network Inc.<\/div>\n
Rating<\/strong> : PG (Brief Mild Language)<\/div>\n
Genre<\/strong> : Romance<\/div>\n
Original Language<\/strong> : Japanese<\/div>\n
Release Date (U.S Theaters)<\/strong>: Jun 12, 1998, Original<\/div>\n
Rerelease Date (Theaters)<\/strong>: Jun 5, 2026<\/div>\n
Release Date (Streaming): <\/strong>Dec 11, 2026<\/div>\n
Runtime<\/strong> : 1h 56m<\/div>\n
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<\/ins><\/div>\n
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\"Love<\/div>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement\u00a0Movies<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exclusive Interview with Writer\/Director Shunji Iwai\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

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Q: I had the pleasure of seeing the film \u201cLove Letter\u201d in theaters. This year marks the 30th anniversary of its release, and now that the 4K remastered version is being screened in theaters, how do you feel about it?<\/b><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: That\u2019s right. You\u2019d think it would make me feel nostalgic, but\u2014and this might not be limited to the film \u201cLove Letter<\/b>\u201d\u2014when I revisit each of my works, I actually find myself feeling surprisingly close to them. It\u2019s almost as if they happened just recently\u2014so much so that I often get the impression I could easily start filming a sequel right away.<\/p>\n

Q: I imagine you conducted technical checks for this 4K remaster, but since Mr. Shinoda, the cinematographer at the time, has already passed away, what specific aspects did you pay attention to when creating the 4K remaster? To what extent were you involved in the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: Well, regarding the color, we had the final Blu-ray or DVD master that we created with Mr. Shinoda, and we aimed to stay as close to that as possible. To be honest, rather than working directly with the film itself, we applied color grading during the process of telecine from the negative film and digitization.<\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s quite difficult for us to control the color on the film itself to that extent, we had a version with the color already adjusted, which was essentially the most recent version available, so we finished the color grading fairly faithfully based on that. As for the audio\u2026 well, we had a 5.1-channel setup (a configuration in which six speakers are arranged front, back, left, and right to surround the listener with different sounds) for the most part, but since the digital sound had a certain harshness to it, we took just the center speaker track directly from the film and integrated it into the mix. That way, we managed to sneak in a bit of that soft, film-like sound.<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q: At that time, Miho Nakayama was a popular actress who had transitioned from being an absolute idol to an actress. Before filming began, during the casting process, what aspects of Ms. Nakayama did you find appealing that led you to cast her?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: For this film, \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d, it had been decided from the very beginning that one actor would play two roles, so we were looking for someone who could portray both characters. Ms. Nakayama\u2019s name came up as a candidate, and when I met her, I intuitively felt that she truly possessed the personalities of both characters. That\u2019s why we asked her to take on the role, and I was really glad that she ultimately agreed to do it.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: In my mind, I feel like from the \u201980s and \u201990s up until this film, Ms. Nakayama tended to play relatively lighthearted or comedic roles in dramas. But starting with this movie, I get the sense that she really began taking on a variety of serious dramatic roles. Did you have that impression as well? During the casting process, did you have any concerns\u2014like, \u201cIs this really going to work?\u201d\u2014or anything like that? When you actually met her, did you feel that he possessed those qualities after all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: That\u2019s right. When I actually met him, she was completely different from her TV persona\u2014she had a very mysterious aura about her. In that sense, when I met her, I felt that she was the right person to play both of those distinctive characters.<\/p>\n

Q: In the movie \u201cLove Letter\u201d, the city of Otaru is captured on screen in a truly magical and beautiful way, and the cinematography also has a very dreamlike quality to it. I was wondering what specific points you focused on during location scouting, and what kind of discussions you had with Director of Photography Shinoda beforehand regarding the Otaru shoot, and how you approached it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: As for location scouting, I\u2019d had this feeling from the very beginning that I wanted to shoot somewhere in the Hokkaido area, so I visited places like Sapporo and Hakodate. But Otaru really left a strong impression on me because it felt somewhat close to the kind of \u201cprimal landscape\u201d I carry within me. I\u2019m originally from Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, and while it\u2019s not exactly the scenery of Sendai, the area where I used to live was quite similar, and perhaps because of that, it felt like a very nostalgic place to me, so that\u2019s why I chose it.<\/p>\n

Q: I heard this from someone else, but while the film is set in Kobe and Otaru, Hokkaido, I heard that most of it was actually filmed in Hokkaido. Is that true?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: That\u2019s right. Back then, the filming equipment was really heavy, so from the production side, we never even considered shooting here. I suppose it might be the same with Hollywood movies, but there was this atmosphere where they\u2019d say, \u201cWe have to shoot this here,\u201d and they just wouldn\u2019t allow that much travel. Kobe isn\u2019t a place where it snows, so since the story was set in a fictional Kobe where it was snowing\u2014which was quite unusual\u2014we had no choice but to shoot that part in Hokkaido anyway. There were a few other scenes as well, so I would have liked to go to Kobe if possible, but I never really had the chance. Or rather, the Kobe earthquake happened just about the following month, so I do have very special feelings for Kobe.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement<\/p>\n

Q: The film \u201cLove Letter\u201d was your debut feature, Mr. Iwai, but you had already been making films since your student days, and you\u2019d written several TV drama scripts before this one, hadn\u2019t you? I\u2019ve heard that you shot this film with a crew of people you were already familiar with. Since I imagine a debut feature must be incredibly nerve-wracking, how much preparation did you do in advance with that familiar crew before going into production?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: Ever since my student days, I\u2019d already directed about 10 films, both big and small, and even though I focused mainly on late-night TV dramas afterward, I still did about 10 of those as well. So when it came to creating works like that\u2014it might sound strange to call it my \u201cprime,\u201d but\u2014I certainly didn\u2019t feel like a rookie anymore.<\/p>\n

If anything, I wanted to rekindle that rookie motivation, so I really tried to refresh my mind by desperately recalling what it was like to be about 18 years old, trying to reawaken the feelings I had when I first rolled film. In that sense, I suppose it was actually hard for me to feel nervous about it\u2014but as far as pressure goes, I was still so young back then, and on set, people often didn\u2019t realize I was the director\u2014especially when meeting me for the first time, they usually didn\u2019t pick up on it.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t exactly pressure, but even with that in mind, it was still a different kind of set from student films or late-night TV dramas. Plus, for our generation, the Pia Film Festival was at its peak, and there were people making their debuts as early as age 20, so I didn\u2019t really feel that debuting after turning 30 was that early. I\u2019d heard plenty of stories from people my age who\u2019d struggled a lot in that environment, so I figured working with people I\u2019d just met would probably lead to all sorts of problems. That\u2019s why, while I was working on late-night dramas and music videos, I gradually assembled a film crew. By the time I made the movie \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d, I\u2019d managed to bring together a team of staff members I could control quite well\u2014it all worked out perfectly\u2014so in that sense, the team setup went exactly as planned.<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q: There\u2019s a scene where young Itsuki Fujii\u2014played by Miki Sakai during her middle school years\u2014finds a dragonfly trapped in ice on the side of the road after her father\u2019s death. Personally, that scene really stuck with me, so I\u2019d like to ask what the intention behind it was.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: Thinking back to my childhood, I believe I was about three years old when I attended my first funeral\u2014it was for my father\u2019s younger sister. At the time, I didn\u2019t really understand what was going on, so I was catching cicadas with my older cousins. It was purely intuitive, but in my mind, funerals and insects became linked, and I wanted to use that as a form of expression back then. Actually, I wrote the screenplay for *Swallowtail* before this film, and in the scene where they\u2019re getting tattoos, and a butterfly appears\u2014it\u2019s the same kind of visual device.<\/p>\n

That came first, and when I was working on the film \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d, I thought, \u201cI\u2019d like to do something similar in a scene like that.\u201d I felt it would fit perfectly there, so I tried freezing a dragonfly and incorporating it into the scene. I don\u2019t really do that kind of thing much anymore, but since I originally attended an art school, I think I was probably doing it back then with that kind of symbolism in mind. Looking back now, it\u2019s not that I\u2019m embarrassed by it, but the expression might come across as a little awkward.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: This film was screened not only in Japan but also in more than 20 countries overseas. I\u2019ve heard that in South Korea, in particular, it reportedly drew an audience of around 1.4 to 1.5 million people during its re-release in 1999. What do you personally think, Mr. Iwai, is the special reason this film has been so well-received in other countries? I feel like it resonates deeply with audiences, especially in Asia, and I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing how it\u2019s received in the U.S. this time around as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: I\u2019m not entirely sure myself, but one possibility that comes to mind is that this film was made during the sh\u014djo manga(Sh\u014djo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women) boom around 1975\u2014which was our generation\u2019s era, right around the time I was in middle and high school. I had certain feelings about that genre, and when I create a work, I tend to think about various references. but with the movie \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d, I had this desire to create something with the flavor of sh\u014djo manga from that era. When I think about what left a strong impression on me, the era before that was actually incredibly dark. The world felt gloomy\u2014there was the Vietnam War, the United Red Army, and so on\u2014and there was this oppressive, bleak atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing\u2014that sense of unease began to dissolve. Things like folk songs with a slightly ethereal feel, Yuming(Artist Name, Yumi Matsutoya, a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and pianist), and \u201cNew Music\u201d started to emerge, and in Japanese cinema, Kadokawa\u2019s \u201dThe Inugami Family<\/strong>\u201d came out. It was a time when a lot of pop culture emerged\u2014making things that had previously felt heavy and gloomy suddenly feel lighter\u2014and sh\u014djo manga was one of those elements.<\/p>\n

I think the movie \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d was probably trying to recreate that feeling. It coincided with a turning point in a new era for both China and South Korea\u2014in China, with Deng Xiaoping\u2019s \u201ccapitalist-style communism,\u201d which became the starting point for modern China, and in South Korea, with the transition from a military regime to the presidency of Kim Dae-jung and a desire to absorb new cultural influences. I get the sense that both countries had a mood somewhat similar to that of Japan around 1975. That\u2019s about the only thing I can think of\u2014that it somehow clicked with that era\u2014but that\u2019s really all I have to go on.<\/p>\n

Q: This will be my last question. As I mentioned earlier, I\u2019ve been greatly influenced by Miho Nakayama, and I think I\u2019ve seen almost all of her TV dramas. Her passing two years ago was truly a huge shock to me\u2014it really made me reflect on things, and I even went back to rewatch some of her works. Mr. Iwai, is there anything you\u2019d like to convey to her now through this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shunji Iwai: Well… I think the actual filming\u2014it took about a month, though the entire shoot probably lasted less than a month or two. It was that kind of time for both of us, but in the end… Normally, most films tend to be forgotten after a single year, or maybe one, two, or three years\u2014I think that\u2019s just their fate.<\/p>\n

But this one hasn\u2019t been forgotten so easily; it\u2019s kept resurfacing from time to time, carried by people\u2019s words. It felt as though we\u2019d both been riding in a small boat all this time, spending the past 30 years side by side with the film \u201cLove Letter<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, right around the 30th anniversary, we\u2019d been in touch and were just talking about how we\u2019d like to visit Otaru while there\u2019s still snow on the ground\u2014and just as we were having that conversation, she passed away. Of course, it was a huge shock, but but somehow, it feels as though this film, myself, and her have been traveling together in that little boat, and I have a sense that, in a way, that journey by boat is still continuing. Before I knew it, I was invited again, and here I am in New York all by myself, but I feel that this little journey has been going on all along.<\/p>\n

Eventually, of course, I\u2019ll have to go where Miho-chan is, but for now\u2014even though I can no longer see her\u2014I feel her presence very strongly. So I feel like I want to continue this journey, even if it\u2019s just a faint one.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Film Movement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you like the interview, share your thoughts below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out more of Nobuhiro’s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer of the film.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n