Memories of Matsuko

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

*** It was the last day of screening of Eiga Sai at the Shang, and I went to the last movie shown that day with some of my friends. Lucky that it was really a good one. It was an experimentation of different themes - what does it take to make life really meaningful, the concept of the tenet, God is love, how people rise if they fall, and of the appreciation of life no matter what position you are in.

I can call it a comedic tragedy, it had its way of making you laugh when tears would begin to fall -- funny antics popping out of dramatic scenes. It presented the beauty of life amidst despair. And only a naivete like Matsuko could achieve this appreciation of and contentment in life.

(More points to follow.... :P)

Memories of Matsuko (嫌われ松子の一生, Kiraware Matsuko no Isshō?, "Life of despised Matsuko") is a 2006 Japanese film written and directed by Tetsuya Nakashima. It is based on a Japanese novel by Muneki Yamada.

It has not yet received North American distribution, though in its North American premiere at the 2007 New York Asian Film Festival, the film received the Audience Award with an average rating of 9.2[1]

The story begins with Sho cleaning out the remaining belongings of his recently deceased aunt Matsuko. Sho gradually learns many details of his aunt's life, and it is through his investigations that the audience learns the story of Matsuko's past.

In the early 1970s, Matsuko was a popular school teacher. However, when one of her students (Ryu) committed a theft, and Matsuko took the blame for him, this had terrible consequences for her life.

The film also reveals some details of Matsuko's earlier life, including troubled childhood, when she struggled to gain the attention of her father. Matsuko's father's affection was mostly dominated by her chronically ill sister, which created an imbalanced rivalry where Matsuko's needs were less likely to be met.

Matsuko's relationships with men were generally troubled as well. She moved from relationship to relationship with men who gave her some inkling of affection, though it was often accompanied by abuse. She often found herself abandoned by the men she loved, who couldn't cope with her neediness. She continued to pursue her dreams of perfect love, even as her life spiraled down, and she found herself working as a prostitute, and even imprisoned.

When Matsuko met later in life with Ryu, whom she saved from the charges relating to his theft, she found that he held affection and admiration for her. She saw in him another chance for true love. But Ryu, by this time, was deeply entrenched in a criminal life. He decided that it would be best for him to disappear from her life, to protect her from the risks of life with a gangster. This final abandonment was disastrous for Matsuko, who never knew to what extent she impacted the lives of the men who loved her. (Wikipedia)