Love Letter feels a bit more artificial than Iwai's excellent All About Lily Chou-Chou, and certainly some of the more caricatured side characters don't help, nor does some of the rather odd character behaviour. I'm willing to believe in the premise of the film, which in itself is very out there, but the film makes no effort to try and make itself easy to buy into. It is very charming at points, gorgeously photographed (the snow!, oh the snow!) and really rather romantic, but for me fell short.

Like the best romances, the gimmick never overwhelms the central relationship, and said relationship is never forced and derives from mutual respect over physical l'amour fou. Love Letter does it all; and while it does get close to going overboard, it restrains itself for a poignant last act.

This is probably a lousy analogy, but think part Moonlight Mile, part Only Yesterday and part Double Life of Veronique. A movie with clever ideas that doesn't wallow in its cleverness. Gorgeous snow-covered scenes, and a fantastic eye for visual depth. It's a tad too much on the sappy side, which could have been avoided with a better musical score. Miho Nakayama is excellent in the lead double roles.