© 2006 "THE LETTER" Film Partners

© 2006 "THE LETTER" Film Partners

JAPANEMA

Japan Foundation Los Angeles provides high quality Japanese film screening every second and fourth Wednesday, at 7:00pm at JFLA Auditorium located at 5700 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036.

Free to attend. Reservation is not required.

Street Parking is available. http://www.jflalc.org/about-us.html#parking

*All movies are in Japanese with English subtitles.

May 27, 2015, at 7:00PM

What it means to commit a crime?
What is punishment through the lives of brothers? 

"The Letter" (121min, 2006)
Directed by Jiro Shono

Based on a novel of the same title by Higashino Keigo, a prestigious Naoki Award winning writer who excels at mystery.

This is the first movie directed by Shono Jiro.

Tsuyoshi (Tamayama Tetsuji), the elder brother, and Naoki (Yamada Takayuki), the younger brother, have been helping each other since they lost their parents. When Tsuyoshi becomes unemployed, however, he commits a robbery in order to obtain the school tuition fees for Naoki and, in the process, kills someone by mistake. While his elder brother is serving his sentence, Naoki undergoes a rough life.

Naoki's hope to escape his troubled life fails because of his elder brother, and gradually, Naoki begins to despise his brother. Naoki later marries Yumiko (Sawajiri Erika) who always supports Naoki by his side, but Yumiko ends up being victimized by people around her because of the marriage.

Naoki is no longer able to endure the unreasonable discrimination and writes to his elder brother to explain all the difficulties he has been facing, and asks to sever their ties as brothers. Tsuyoshi learns the truth from the letter and realizes for the first time the significance of his crime.