The Sinicization and Return of a Japanese Love Letter

◎ Flooded

Two years ago, as Shunji Iwai's first Chinese-language film, the word-of-mouth and box office of "Hello, Zhihua" were not satisfactory. Despite being escorted by Chen Kexin, this work is not well localized, and it is generally believed that it is full of embarrassing traces of "Sinicization". Two years later, the same story returned, replaced by a new Japanese team, offering the last letter.

Back in a familiar context, The Last Letter becomes smooth and smooth. At the beginning, there was a scene in "Nowa": the girl Nohua ran to the door wearing slippers to get a letter, although Iwai Shunji eventually adopted a localization plan, but his heart was still awkward, "The Japanese will change their shoes in this case..."

Now, Shunji Iwai is finally free to dispatch the details of the story. For example, it presents summer memories that belong exclusively to Japan – fireworks and yukata. On a blue summer night, the girl was illuminated by brilliant fireworks. The fleeting fireworks and youth, the classic and everyday beauty of mourning, are really difficult to translate to other contexts.

In the era of smartphones, however, the setting of writing letters can only be put back into the ancient and modern Japan. There, the letters still glow. Younger generations will respectfully express their gratitude to their predecessors in the form of letters. Or, reuniting with her teenage crush, Yuri, played by Takako Matsumoto, will also exclaim like a girl: "Ah, finally shake hands with the senior!" "Can such a setting be placed in "Zhihua"? It is likely to become a moral flaw in the character.

So, from "Zhihua" to "The Last Letter", it is more like a "return" - a story that belongs to Japan returns to Japan. Not only the difference in details, Iwai Shunji also gave a different tone to "The Last Letter".

Although both "Zhihua" and "The Last Letter" use death as the prologue to the story, the opening shot is different. "Zhihua" goes directly into the funeral and writes mourning with mourning. The Last Letter, on the other hand, begins the story with a sense of innocence. In the shot, the snow-white waterfall is surrounded by greenery, and the girls swim in it like elves, and then come to the cold funeral, which is to write mourning with music. This is the tone of More Iwai Shunji, aesthetic and cruel to maintain a sense of tension. Remember All About Lily Week? The bright green rice fields reflect the lonely and cold mood of teenagers.

In addition, Shunji Iwai also crammed a lot of aerial footage into "The Last Letter". The camera of "Zhihua" closely follows the character's every move, while "The Last Letter" likes to pull the camera at the right time to see the whole picture of the city or town from a distance. Life and death, sorrow and joy, how can this be good? The sky is still silent, the days go on, and "The Last Letter" deliberately creates this sense of alienation.

And this sense of alienation is not Hou Xiaoxian's "heaven and earth are not benevolent." Do you think Shunji Iwai wants to get colder? No, when the footage of "The Last Letter" was pulled back to the human world, Shunji Iwai turned on the filter of youth to the maximum, using a beautiful slow-motion lens that lasted longer than "Zhihua".

The scene is like this, the middle-aged man returns to the campus, suddenly sees the former lover who is still a girl, and stares for a long time. This long slow-motion mirror is the highest lyricism in daily life, and it is the camera that directly pierces the hidden mood of the characters. Shunji Iwai understands this art of distance and proximity, and the camera is pulled away in order to push the next shot more fiercely. Under the sun, those sorrows that cannot be escaped, the regrets that cannot be erased, firmly besiege mankind. The death of the unruly, like a stone, stirs up layers of ripples, and the lives of those involved are quietly rewritten. How to face sudden death, eternal regret, is a heavy core wrapped in a small fresh context.

Why is the Japanese version of "Hello, Zhihua" not called "Hello, Unsuka"? It is clear that Shunji Iwai is interested in being located in the Love Letters. The Last Letter was originally called "Last Letter" and the original name of "Love Letter" was "Love Letter" – some people say that "The Last Letter" can also be translated as "Suicide Note" if you want to highlight the mirror relationship between the two.

This year coincides with the 25th anniversary of the release of "Love Letters", and "The Last Letter" is like a work living on the extended line of "Love Letters", a long shadow that spans 25 years later.

The same death opening, the same librarian setting, the same letter from the deceased stand-in, the same crush, the same flu, the same youth reminiscence... Just like there is no love letter in "Love Letter", some are just hidden behind the secret confession of the library card, and the unsung in "The Last Letter" has no other words to say to the daughter, the so-called "last letter" is actually the original graduation speech.

"The Last Letter" and "Love Letter" use a dual-time narrative, and the most moving part of them is always the youth part. What makes Shunji Iwai special is that the narrative of youth is always a picture pieced together in his narratives and memories. In "Love Letters", it is by relying on the memories of the female Fujii tree that the precious fragments of the male Fujii tree are restored. In "The Last Letter", it is by relying on the narration of the sister and former lover that the girlhood of the unruly is outlined.

Therefore, this kind of youth narrative is full of soft light and unreliable. Therefore, it is more prominent to highlight the fatigue or embarrassment of the moment. Therefore, Iwai Shunji's vision of the world is not really small freshness, but to use small freshness to exceed the pain. Yes, Shunji Iwai never shy away from hurt. When you were a child, you only remember the white-clad teenager Kashiwara Takashi under the fluttering curtains. When you grow up, you realize that the dragonfly frozen in the snow is so shocking.

Back to this "Last Letter", how dare you think deeply, how did Unsuka, who lives under the horror of domestic violence, secretly look through the letters of former lovers and seize this last bit of light? Behind Shunji Iwai's soft light, there is always death or loneliness, and he is staring at the tiger.

However, when it came to "The Last Letter", Shunji Iwai really had nothing more to say, nor could he dig out more amazing details. He wanted to fill in a larger pattern with the romance of three generations, but which one was singled out was soft and soft. In "Love Letters", there is just no twilight love, but there is also a story of the previous generation, that is, Hiroko's grandfather. Who can forget that he carried Hiroko on a snowy night, and the temperature and strength are both, which is another powerful promotion of the theme of death and regret.

At the end of the day, "The Last Letter" is like a distant reflection of "Love Letters", but like an imitator who lacks personality. I don't know if shunji Iwai can find the courage he once had in the new work "The Dog of the Court Keeper"?