"Why hasn't the male lead appeared after all this time?"
"I don't know either. And it's not just that the male lead Jing Yu from 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' hasn't shown up—even the female lead Xia Yining is missing?"
"I really don't get it!"
"Keep your voice down, you're bothering people watching the movie."
In the cinema, some couples whispered among themselves.
Tang Yun frowned slightly.
Even though she felt the same way, talking during a movie really does disturb others.
The film continued playing.
Yu Youqing played both the vibrant, outgoing adult female Fujii Itsuki, and the grieving fiancée 'Watanabe Hiroko' of the deceased adult male Fujii Itsuki.
The story is intercut with the relationships surrounding these two characters.
The female Fujii Itsuki lost her father in middle school because snow blocked the roads and he couldn't get to the hospital. That event set up a narrative thread, and several scenes hinted at her poor health. Meanwhile, although Watanabe Hiroko had never stopped mourning male Fujii Itsuki, years after his death, she eventually got together with his best friend.
About 40 minutes in—
Because she longed for her late fiancé, Watanabe Hiroko kept mailing letters to his middle school address. But those letters ended up being delivered to a female classmate of the same name, Fujii Itsuki. Out of curiosity, the female Fujii Itsuki even wrote back.
The situation felt eerily like the deceased male Fujii Itsuki had somehow come back to life and was replying to the letters.
Driven by curiosity, Watanabe Hiroko and her current boyfriend, Akiba Shigeru, went to the address to find out who had been sending the replies.
At this point, 'Love Letter' finally revealed the fruits of its careful foreshadowing and atmosphere-building.
Watanabe Hiroko and the female Fujii Itsuki never met face to face. She only caught a glimpse of her at the doorway and realized—they looked exactly alike.
A wave of sorrow swept over her heart—and through the entire theater.
"Could it be?" Tang Yun suddenly had a theory.
Male Fujii Itsuki and female Fujii Itsuki were middle school classmates. The story also mentioned that he fell in love with Watanabe Hiroko at first sight.
So... did he fall in love with someone who just looked like his female classmate, Fujii Itsuki?
"Did this male Fujii Itsuki treat Watanabe Hiroko as a replacement for the female Fujii Itsuki?"
From across the street, when Watanabe Hiroko saw the female Fujii Itsuki who looked exactly like her—
She instantly understood everything. Her expression turned sorrowful.
"That's awful."
"A replacement!"
"She loved him for years!"
"Ugh, if that were me, I'd be furious."
"Men and their lies—'love at first sight'? Please."
"Poor 'Watanabe Hiroko'..."
The audience whispered.
Pressed by her aunt's questioning—
"If that's why he chose me… what do I do? So even love at first sight… has conditions?"
Watanabe Hiroko, tearful, sobbed in front of the mother of the late male Fujii Itsuki, shaking Tang Yun's heart.
Was this film going to be another tragic story like 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal'?
Tang Yun was starting to realize—the male lead of this movie was indeed the late Fujii Itsuki, long since gone.
Recalling the trailer and the stunning looks of the actor Jing Yu, Tang Yun silently slapped a half-trashy guy label on this role.
As the story developed, Watanabe Hiroko decided to keep exchanging letters with the female Fujii Itsuki, hoping to discover whether male Fujii Itsuki had truly loved her, or if it was only because she resembled someone else.
At this point, 'Love Letter' officially entered its main storyline—
The letter exchange between Watanabe Hiroko and the female Fujii Itsuki, and the middle school flashbacks of the female and male Fujii Itsuki.
Through the letters, the female Fujii Itsuki slowly recalled her own past.
Cherry blossoms swirling, grass growing, birds singing.
Because their names were identical—
They were mocked during roll call and teased constantly by classmates.
To avoid ridicule, they deliberately kept their distance.
They didn't want to be associated with one another, but the shared name made it impossible not to notice each other.
Classmates even pulled pranks, like writing "Fujii Itsuki" on ballots during the class rep election.
They were even paired as nominees for the library committee—on purpose.
Then came the fight.
When the female Fujii Itsuki broke down in tears from one prank, the male Fujii Itsuki got into a full-blown fight with the prankster in front of the whole class.
From that point on, Tang Yun started feeling like something was… off.
But what exactly?
"Didn't she say she barely remembered him? That she only had a vague impression because of the name? Then why does she remember every tiny detail? The class rep election, the library rep voting, the math question he asked her, even cleaning duty?"
A whisper from someone nearby made Tang Yun snap out of her thoughts.
Exactly. That was the feeling—
How could she recall such vivid details about a classmate from more than ten years ago, someone supposedly unimportant?
Of course, this could just be a script oversight.
Tang Yun kept watching.
Then came the iconic scene from 'Love Letter'.
The two of them, now library committee members, worked together in the school library. Backlit by golden sunlight, the curtain swaying slightly, the female Fujii Itsuki looked toward the male Fujii Itsuki—his profile glowing in the light.
Handsome, gentle, quiet.
The cinema fell into complete silence.
The background music swelled at just the right moment.
The audience couldn't tell what the female Fujii Itsuki was feeling at that moment, but many of the girls in the theater were clearly captivated.
Looks change everything. Even Tang Yun, who had already slapped that half-trashy guy label on him, quietly took it back.
Finally, the viewers settled into the kind of emotional flow they expected from a romance film.
So the earlier part of the movie was just a buildup?
And yet—
"Wait, the male lead is actually already dead, right? Died years ago. This is all just her memory."
Another untimely comment broke the silence. Tang Yun took a deep breath.
Watanabe Hiroko and Fujii Itsuki continued to exchange letters. The middle school flashbacks expanded.
Because they had the same name, their test papers got mixed up. So she waited for him by the bike parking area.
There, she witnessed another girl's confession to the male Fujii Itsuki, and saw him reject her coldly.
She also met a heartbroken girl from the neighboring class.
The male Fujii Itsuki, needing light to finish his foreign language homework, asked her to generate power with her bike for him.
Under the soft glow of the bike light, she saw the serious look on his face.
And without anyone noticing, the film's entire atmosphere began to shift.