Letters From Kanai Nirai
First time seeing the 2005 Yu Aoi movie “Letters From Kanai Nirai”…what a sweet and gentle movie, I don’t know how I managed to let this one pass me by for so long. Well, better late than never, and I’m so glad I did!
Letters from Kanai Nirai (Nirai Kanai Kara No Tegami) is the story of a young girl named Fuuki (Aoi) who is dropped off to stay with relatives on a remote island in Okinawa while her mother goes to live in Tokyo when she is but 7 years old. As the years go by her mother keeps promising to return one day and get her but never does. The only communication she has with her mother are the letters that come to her without fail on her birthday.
As Fuuki gets older she seems to know that the elders are keeping the true nature of her mother away from her, but it isn’t til she is 18 years old and decides to move to Tokyo herself that the true meaning of the distance between them…and the letters she has sent.
This was such a sweet movie (naturally, any movie that has Okinawa as the backdrop is going to be breezy and laid back) and I how even back in 2005 Aoi Yu was just completely enveloping herself in her roles- she is SO believable as Fuuki you really feel like you know her and are along with her on her journey.
I have to say that I pretty much guessed the plot of Letters from Kanai Nirai right away- a few years ago, there was a essay on NPR’s “This American Life” that told the true story of a correspondence between Mother and Daughter that was almost exactly what transpired in the movie...though that ended on a more bitter note than the Aoi Yu film which was filled with warmth and love.
