aitatsu Sarenai Santsu no Tegami
                                      (Haitatsu sarenai San Toori no Tegami)
                 aka he Three Undelivered Letters Japan (1979)

Director: Yoshitaro Nomura
Writing credits: Kaneto Shindou based on a novel by Ellery Queen 
Cinematography: Takashi Kawamata 
Art direction/Production design: Kyôhei Morita/Morita Sato Taira
Music: Yasushi Akutagawa 
Cast: Shin Saburi (Mistumasa Karasawa), Nobuko Otowa (Sumie, Mitsumasa's wife), Mayumi Ogawa (Reiko Karasawa), Komaki Kurihara (Noriko Karasawa), Keiko Matsuzaka (Tomoko), Kanzaki Ai (Keiko Karasawa), Keiko Takeshita (Mihoko Okawa), Kataoka Takao (Toshiyuki Fujimura), Hikime Ryo(u) (Bob), Tosinobu Sawake, Tsunehiko Watase (Minegishi), Matsuko Shiga, Eitaro Ozawa (Dr. Ushiyama), Tanie Kitabayashi (Tami), Keizo Kanie (Inspector Yoshikawa), Yûsuke Takita (Kashiwabara)

Source novel: Calamity Town
130 min

The film is based on the EQ-novel (Galbraith, Stuart. The Japanese Filmography, 1996) and paints a complex picture of Japan in the increasingly prosperous late ‘70s in which class distinctions, it seems, prove hard to kill.

Mistumasa Karasawa, a wealthy banker in Hagi, has 3 beautiful daughters: Reiko, Noriko, Keiko. Noriko was engaged to be married to a worker in her father's bank: Fujisawa. However shortly before the wedding he disappeared for no apparent reason. 3 years later, he returns. While Karasawa is still angry with him, Noriko, after a depression, seems very happy with his return. Eventually they get married. At this point Robert, a Japanese American, comes to stay with his uncle Karasawa to study in Japan. Also Fujisawa's sister comes to Karasawa's house to stay over and Robert and Noriko accidentally find 3 letters in Fujisawa's room they discover three letters addressed to Fujimura's sister about the death of his wife. Subsequently the sister dies and investigations begin.

As so often in Japanese mysteries the focus is very much on the how, or in this case the “if”, rather than the who or the why which are in themselves fairly predictable at least to those familiar with the genre. (Scanlon)

In 1979 Fred Dannay made the trip to Tokyo to attend the premiere of the movie and was received with all the regards he deserved. Keiko Matsuzaka (Tomoko) was nominated for a Japanese Academy Award (1980).

(Teaser for the DVD 2015 - YouTube)