Love Letter

WWII veteran Reikichi lands a peculiar post-war job: helping Japanese women write English-language letters to their American GI lovers. Especially torturous is the fact that Reikichi himself has a lover he can no longer locate or contact, a mysterious woman from simpler times. Kinuyo Tanaka’s directorial debut tackles the sexual politics of the American occupation with uncommon frankness but also delicate romanticism, much like the films of Keisuke Kinoshita, who wrote the screenplay.

—Brian Hu