The release of Iwai Shunji’s "Love Letter" quickly caused a sensation, which is also the work of one of the most famous movie we are most familiar with. It has a typical Japanese style. The picture seems to always be high-gloss, over-exposure, making the color fade a part of the color. It looks fresh and elegant. "Love Letter" is such a pure film about pure love, death, and remembrance.
The whole movie is a memorial to the lost time, the lost old man, the lost youth, and the lost love. However, as far as the traditional culture of Japan is concerned, there is always a feeling of resentment and death in the good things. Japan has an allusion to "the cherry blossoms of spring is graceful, but the human bodies are always buried under the roots." Although the film is as beautiful as a prose poem, it also hides the atmosphere of death everywhere. The symbol of the death message are throughout the film. Almost all of Iwai’s films, he tried to strip the veil of death from different angles. In the film, both Itsuki Fuji and Hiroko Watanabe are shrouded in death. Especially to talk about the scene o Itsuki Fuji in the hospital. She fell asleep on her seat and faintly heard the name of the nurse called "Itsuki Fuji". The end of the corridor was suddenly illuminated. An unsupported bed came from the corner. The picture was quickly edited two or three times.
The bed was getting closer and closer. Her father, who was being rescued, was lying on the bed. She and her father stood at the two ends of the corridor. At this time, the director used a compensating lens. The camera used a fast forward zoom lens while the camera was back. The picture suddenly deformed, the corridor space was stretched, and she ran. The camera follows behind her, swinging back and forth from left to right, switching her side face and back from time to time. When Itsuki Fuji pushed the door of the rescue room, the picture suddenly switches to the farewell scene. The people she saw in her dreams have passed away, and her youthful memories have passed away. Now she begins to think back slowly. However, the brother-in-law who died his father forgot the big brother’s jealousy day. In this film, Director Iwai handle the portrayal of death very beautifully.
Shunji Iwai, who was born on the TV station, also used the method of shooting TV in the filming of the movie. These methods include the on-the-spot follow-up and multi-camera skipping. Traditionally, in order to create a three-dimensional sense of space and space between characters, between scenes, and the role of position scheduling and deep composition, it is very important to do a series of technical means. Achieving these goals, such as the arrangement of the track, the fine adjustment of the zoom lens, and the delicate placement of the lights, are all procedures that must be clarified in the so-called on-site scheduling.
However, Shunji Iwai has taken a different approach and does not want to use the mature scheme. Instead, he uses a wide-angle lens in large quantities, and performs a large number of abnormal multi-primary light source lighting, and a large number of flexible movements of the aircraft, saving time and effort. However, at the same time, it can bring a kind of inexplicable method of presence and make a lot of attempts. In the film, the director uses a shallow depth of field lens to interpret the performance, so that the audience can be closer to the characters. On the composition, you can see a stable picture that conforms to the standard composition principle, and you can also see a picture that deliberately breaks the balance. People and scenes correspond to each other. The timely appearance of scenes can always fill the short-lived lack of characters, making the picture extremely liquid.
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My Score is 9/10
Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/47002-love-letter?language=en-US
Critic: AAA