Shunji Iwai was once Japan's hottest young director following the smash success of "Love Letter," a 1995 film about a woman who writes a letter to her dead lover — and gets a reply.

No, it wasn't a film about vampires — but it did attract legions of young female fans enraptured by not only the impossibly romantic story, but by Iwai's knack for capturing every tremor of emotion with his jittery camerawork and offbeat editing rhythms.

Iwai himself, with his pop-star good looks, was of course part of the package.