![‘Love Letter’ Trailer: Shunji Iwai’s Landmark Debut Returns To North American Theaters In 4K This June [Exclusive]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20074956/unnamed-2026-05-20T074721.255.jpg "‘Love Letter’ Trailer: Shunji Iwai’s Landmark Debut Returns To North American Theaters In 4K This June [Exclusive]")
Nearly three decades after it became a phenomenon across Asia, Shunji Iwai’s 1995 breakthrough “Love Letter” is getting its first North American 4K theatrical release. Film Movement Classics will bring the restored film to select theaters beginning June 5, 2026, reintroducing one of contemporary Japanese cinema’s defining works of memory, grief, and romantic longing.
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The film stars Miho Nakayama in a dual role as Hiroko Watanabe, a woman still mourning her fiancé two years after he died in a mountaineering accident. On the anniversary of his passing, she finds his childhood address in an old school yearbook and, on impulse, sends a letter there, not expecting a response. But a reply arrives from Itsuki Fujii, a librarian who shares his name and carries an unexpected connection to his past.
As the two women begin writing to each other, “Love Letter” gradually becomes a story of recovered memories, missed signals, and feelings never fully spoken. Through flashbacks to adolescence in snowy Hokkaido, the film builds a portrait of a man across two lives, with Iwai tracing how grief can preserve someone and distort them at the same time. The cast also includes Etsushi Toyokawa, Bunjaku Han, Takashi Kashiwabara, and Miki Sakai.
The restoration will also be shown in select theaters with Iwai’s “All About Lily Chou-Chou,” which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026. Released in 2001, the film follows alienated Japanese teenagers in the early internet era, centering on Yuichi, a bullied 14-year-old who finds refuge in the music of the elusive pop singer Lily Chou-Chou. Where “Love Letter” turns memory into a kind of ache, “All About Lily Chou-Chou” pushes youth, loneliness, cruelty, and fandom into darker territory.
“All About Lily Chou-Chou,” also written and directed by Iwai, runs 146 minutes and features Hayato Ichihara, Shûgo Oshinari, Ayumi Ito, Takao Osawa, Miwako Ichikawa, and Izumi Inamori.
“Love Letter” opens in select theaters beginning June 5 at the Metrograph in New York. Watch the new trailer below.
![‘Love Letter’ Trailer: Shunji Iwai’s Landmark Debut Returns To North American Theaters In 4K This June [Exclusive]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20075106/loveletter-poster-691x1024.jpg)
