Information

• Director

  • Shunji Iwai

• Writer

  • Shunji Iwai

• Cast

  • Miho Nakayama (Hiroko Watanabe / Itsuki Fujii)

  • Etsushi Toyokawa (Shigeru Akiba)

  • Miki Sakai (Itsuki Fujii – middle school years)

• Runtime

  • Approximately 117 minutes

• Country of Production

  • Japan

• Awards

  • Japan Academy Prize – Best Actress (Miho Nakayama)

  • Blue Ribbon Award – Best Actress

  • Long-term recognition at Asian and international film festivals

About the OST

I would like to begin by talking about the film’s OST.

The OST album composed by Remedios.

It is something I love as much as the film itself—perhaps even more than the film.

Every winter, I often play the entire album while walking through the streets.

The track that most represents the film is “A Winter Story” from the soundtrack.

Behind story - The director had an eight-year-old girl practice and perform the piece so that the purity of first love would be conveyed through the music.

One of my personal favorite tracks is “He Loves You So.”

It appears in the scene where male Itsuki, using the excuse of checking exam papers to stay together, asks female Itsuki to create light with the pedals of her bicycle.

Because each track title corresponds directly to the scene in which it appears, the soundtrack offers an additional layer of enjoyment.

An Unfortunate Fact

The film’s characters are composed mainly of two women and the people surrounding them.

The two protagonists are Hiroko Watanabe and Itsuki Fujii, both portrayed in a dual role by Miho Nakayama, who passed away in 2024.

To speak briefly about Miho Nakayama: she was a veteran actress who originally debuted as one of Japan’s representative idol singers.

In 1992, she gained major popularity with the song “Sekai-jū no Dare Yori Kitto” (“Surely More Than Anyone in the World”), which she sang together with WANDS.

The song is also well known in Korea, where the band The Nuts released a remake.

Miho Nakayama passed away on December 6, 2024, with the cause of death presumed to be heat shock.

“Heat shock” refers to a sudden rise or drop in blood pressure caused by abrupt temperature changes, which can lead to strokes or heart attacks.

It most commonly occurs during winter, especially when using hot baths or hot springs.

In Japan, approximately 19,000 people die each year from bathtub-related drowning.

Looking at her activities outside this film, she was often seen with a tanned complexion and an image that felt sharp yet charming.

In contrast, the film emphasizes her very pale skin, delicate hands, and an extremely feminine voice.

This is exemplified in the character of Hiroko.

Hiroko herself is a very feminine and cautious character by nature.

Itsuki, on the other hand, is portrayed as easygoing and somewhat clumsy, presenting a contrasting charm.

Despite being played by the same actress in a dual role, the two characters appear completely different.

I believe this is entirely due to Miho Nakayama’s exceptional acting performance.

Interpretation

About the Two Characters Living in the Present

Hiroko has a future, even though she has lost her husband.

There is someone by her side who could begin a new chapter of life with her.

Yet she remains trapped in the past.

Itsuki appears to have little interest in romance.

She also does not seem to be someone who listens closely to her own feelings.

Her father died of pneumonia.

Even so, when she catches a cold, she refuses to go to the hospital, causing her mother to worry.

Someone who does not take good care of either her heart or her body, she is a clumsy person.

About the Letters

The letters exchanged between Hiroko and Itsuki possess several unusual characteristics.

They are not about the sender or the recipient, but about a deceased third person.

As they write to each other, Hiroko and Itsuki focus primarily on the dead Itsuki.

Beyond that, they feel no need to talk about anything else, and any sense of purpose disappears.

The letters do not contain the present, but the past.

Through these letters, they travel through time.

Hiroko time-travels into her husband’s past—one she never knew—through the stories Itsuki tells her.

Itsuki journeys into a past she herself had forgotten, searching for the dead Itsuki and her younger self.

Through the letters, they gain something essential from each other.

Something they did not realize they needed, yet needed the most.

Hiroko required an inevitable process in order to let her husband go and move forward.

That process was to think about her husband repeatedly, until her thoughts were worn down to their core.

Thoughts give rise to questions and curiosity, connecting her to parts of her husband’s past she never knew.

Though it began with curiosity, the past revealed through the letters was necessary for Hiroko to forget her husband.

For Hiroko, Itsuki is the living embodiment of her husband Itsuki’s past.

As Itsuki recalls memories to pass on to Hiroko, she comes to understand feelings within herself that she had never recognized.

Like a puzzle piece tucked away under a wardrobe—ignored and forgotten—it was a part of her heart that ultimately had to be taken out and completed.

About the Dragonfly

In the past, Itsuki discovers a dragonfly trapped in ice while descending the mountain after her father’s funeral.

Dragonflies are vulnerable to temperature; it is said that when winter comes, their wings crumble and break apart.

The dragonfly encased in ice, however, is perfectly preserved.

According to the director’s official statement, the dragonfly symbolizes Itsuki’s first love—one that could not be conveyed even after a long time had passed.

Personally, I feel that the dragonfly represents people one can never meet again.

They can no longer be touched, nor can they be saved.

For young Itsuki, that person was her father.

For the grown Itsuki, it is the male Itsuki trapped in her own past—already dead.

About the Other Characters

While climbing the mountain, Hiroko suddenly refuses to go any further.

She wants to let go of the past, yet she is still afraid.

Shigeru leads the way, but Itsuki remains painfully missed.

Shigeru, the deceased Itsuki’s closest friend, is also in pain.

He longs for Itsuki, yet loves Hiroko.

Still, as someone who lives in the present, he is a man with the strength to guide Hiroko forward.

In the film, both Hiroko and Itsuki ultimately move ahead by looking back at the past.

The same is true for Itsuki’s family.

The grandfather, who had long refused to leave the house they had lived in for years, suddenly agrees to move without hesitation.

In the past, he carried his sick son on his back to the hospital, but arrived too late and lost him.

Even so, he vows that even if it costs him his life, he will carry the ill Itsuki safely to the hospital.

Despite his trauma, the image of him carrying his granddaughter shows a man stronger than anyone else—someone who believes in himself.

Such a strong figure has the power to lead those around him into the future.

The mother, unable to escape the trauma tied to her husband’s death, tries to stop the grandfather from carrying Itsuki.

Yet in the end, she trusts her father-in-law and joins him.

She, too, is a character who moves toward the future.

The letters exchanged with Hiroko allow Itsuki to look into her own heart and move forward.

Her family’s love and devotion lead Itsuki to take better care of her body.

To live the rest of one’s life, health is essential.

About “Aoi Sangoshō” (“Blue Coral Reef”)

Shigeru and Hiroko go to the mountain where Itsuki died.

Itsuki’s friend, known as “Bura-bō,” lives on the mountain, warning hikers of danger.

Shigeru and Hiroko visit his mountain lodge.

While Bura-bō prepares a hot pot, Shigeru and Hiroko sit and talk.

Hiroko recounts the story of Itsuki’s proposal.

Itsuki had prepared a ring, yet for two hours he said nothing, only staring into the distance.

In the end, it was Hiroko who first asked him to marry her.

Itsuki was a man who found it extremely difficult to reveal his true feelings.

That personality connects directly to the song Itsuki loved—“Aoi Sangoshō” (“Blue Coral Reef”).

Hiroko had always wondered why everyone around Itsuki, including Shigeru, often sang that song.

The reason they sang it so often was because it was Itsuki’s last words.

When Itsuki was stranded and dying, he sang “Blue Coral Reef.”

The chorus lyrics go:

“My love rides the southern wind and goes to that island.”

The southern wind blows from south to north.

Itsuki had transferred schools away from Otaru, where he lived as a child.

The wind Itsuki sings of ultimately heads toward someone in the north.

The love of Itsuki (male), carried by the wind from the south, travels to Itsuki (female) in Otaru, located on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

It is said that Itsuki (male) did not particularly like Seiko Matsuda, the singer of “Blue Coral Reef.”

Yet he sang this song at the moment of death—proof that he had continued to love his first love, Itsuki (female), all along.

For Hiroko, this is a bittersweet truth.

But love is distributed fairly.

Hiroko receives Shigeru’s love, and it is implied that she will move forward with him.

Itsuki receives the feelings of a first love that were never conveyed.

Perhaps the deceased Itsuki has found a bit of peace as well.

Having loved and longed for her throughout his life, he finally conveys his unspoken feelings—even if only after death.

About the Iconic Scene

In the morning, upon waking, the vast snowfield stretches out before them, and at its far end the snow-covered mountain where Itsuki was lost can be seen.

Shigeru shouts the words he wishes to say to the deceased Itsuki.

He yells that he will take responsibility for Hiroko, then lightens the mood by answering himself with “Sure,” as if receiving Itsuki’s approval.

When Hiroko falls, she throws off her coat and runs into the wide open field, crying out again and again, weeping for a long time.

This is the film’s most famous scene.

However, it is not merely a moment of shouting into the snowfield.

It can be seen as the moment in which Hiroko casts off the past that had bound her.

It is, in fact, a pivotal scene.

About Names

When Itsuki was born, her grandfather gave the name “Itsuki” to a tree he planted.

The act of naming a tree itself is worth noting.

Naming something after a person is not an act one does lightly unless one deeply respects or loves that person.

For that reason, any act involving a name always carries meaning.

The same is true of repeatedly calling someone’s name in solitude, or even writing it down.

These are acts that would not be done without longing for or loving that person.

Itsuki left traces of that name—her own, and the name she loved—across countless library cards.

She loved Itsuki as many times as that name appeared.

About the Film’s Structure

This film has an unusual structure.

Although it is a romance film, the exchange of letters does not occur between a man and a woman, but between two women connected by a deceased man.

In that sense, it is clear that this is not a film where love simply ignites or continues forward in a conventional way.

The letters begin with longing for one person, turn into curiosity about that person, and ultimately illuminate that person’s past.

Hiroko and Itsuki look back on the past for different reasons.

Itsuki does so to uncover emotions and memories she had pressed deep inside—feelings she herself did not recognize.

Through that process, she comes to understand the feelings of Itsuki, who loved her so deeply.

In a way, this is also for the deceased Itsuki, who may have hoped that his feelings would be conveyed, even after death.

Hiroko, on the other hand, clings to her longing, like trying to grasp sand slipping through her fingers.

Yet her journey into the past is also a step toward forgetting it and moving forward.

The famous line known to many Koreans—

“Ogenki desu ka? Watashi wa genki desu.”

(“How are you? I’m doing well.”)

Hiroko says this line repeatedly.

Not only in the snowfield, but also in the letters she sends to Itsuki.

“Ogenki desu ka?” (“How are you?”) and “Watashi wa genki desu.” (“I’m doing well.”) together express the entire film in a single sentence.

The journey begins with wondering whether the deceased Itsuki is doing well, and ends with Hiroko herself being able to say that she is doing well.

In Search of Lost Time

When Itsuki is unable to attend school following her father’s death, male Itsuki comes to visit her.

He hands her a book, asking her to return it on his behalf.

The film does not explicitly reveal what the book is.

However, by the end of the film, we see that the book brought by the students for Itsuki has the exact same cover.

That book is In Search of Lost Time.

It seems likely that the director was deeply moved by In Search of Lost Time and drew inspiration from it while making this film.

The novel was written by the French writer Marcel Proust between 1913 and 1927.

It is regarded as one of the most important novels not only in French literary history, but in world literature as a whole.

I, too, purchased the complete set, but after reading about fifty pages of the first volume, I have left it unfinished for years.

Personally, I have read roughly 250 novels, yet this remains the only book I have ever stopped reading midway because of its difficulty.

In Search of Lost Time consists of seven volumes, with the seventh subtitled Time Regained.

Hiroko transforms from someone who lets go of love into someone who delivers it.

As a result, Itsuki becomes someone who regains love and memories.

This is the reverse of how the film begins.

The narrative initially appears as though Itsuki is delivering Hiroko’s love, but ultimately it is Hiroko who returns Itsuki’s lost love to her.

In the novel, the narrator takes a bite of a madeleine, and its scent brings back memories of eating madeleines during childhood.

From there, the story unfolds beginning with the narrator’s early years.

Like In Search of Lost Time, this film revives memory through various sensory experiences.

And in discovering new experiences within those memories, it shares a similar structural approach.

Gathering the Foreshadowing, and the Magician of Emotion

One of the film’s greatest strengths lies in how it scatters foreshadowing and meaning throughout.

All of these devices are not meant to deceive the audience, but rather resemble a kind of magic designed to open the heart.

To ultimately make the viewer feel a love that was never spoken.

The reason this film remains in memory for so long is precisely because of that quiet magic.

And here, love is not something grand.

It is an unspoken feeling carried to the end, a single drawing left behind in its place, and emotions that are finally understood.

After all the foreshadowing is gathered, what remains is nothing more than the warmth of a first love that one person carried for an entire lifetime.