There’s been talk recently about the decline of youth romance in Japanese cinema, as audiences tire of all those teary-eyed paeans to puppy love. Shunji Iwai — whose 1995 breakout hit, “Love Letter,” was an exemplar of the genre — has other ideas. With a title and structure evoking the director’s earlier film, “Last Letter” finds Iwai still searching for the platonic ideal of slush.
It’s a shamelessly corny movie, made more appealing by its cast — or some of them, at least. Takako Matsu, reuniting with Iwai for the first time since 1998’s “April Story,” plays Yuri, a middle-aged mother mourning the death of her older sister, Misaki.
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