Memories of Matsuko (2006) ( Kiraware Matsuko no isshô )

Memories of Matsuko (2006) (Blu-Ray) (*)

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Original Title: Kiraware Matsuko no isshô
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Japanese ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
130 min

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Scene Access
Storyboards
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2006 and produced in:
Japan ( India, Eastern Asia )

Directed By:
Tetsuya Nakashima

Written By:
Tetsuya Nakashima
Muneki Yamada

Actors:
Miki Nakatani ..... Matsuko Kawajiri
Eita ..... Shô Kawajiri
Yûsuke Iseya ..... Yôichi Ryû
Mikako Ichikawa ..... Kumi Kawajiri
Asuka Kurosawa ..... Megumi Sawamura
Gori ..... Shûji Ôkura
Shinji Takeda ..... Onodera
YosiYosi Arakawa ..... Kenji Shimazu
Gekidan Hitori ..... Takeo Okano
Magî ..... Detective
Shôsuke Tanihara ..... Shunji Saeki
Takanori Takeyama ..... Vice-Principal
Masahiro Kômoto ..... Man with Stand on School Trip
Nagisa Katahira ..... Herself
Takuzô Kadono ..... Principal

Synopsis:

When a bored college student learns that a long lost aunt has been found dead in a park, he begins piecing together her life to see if it had any value. What he finds is a revelation. Talented film director, Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls), wield a host of cinematic tools to make Memories Of Matsuko a memorably entertaining and emotionally powerful "fairytale tragedy," weaving together realistic human drama with offbeat comedy and spectacular (Bob Fosse-like) production numbers to tell the heartbreaking story of Matsuko Kawajiri, a starry-eyed woman who spends her entire life serching for a worthy "prince" capable of returning her limitless love. Versatile actress, Miki Nakatani, renders a virtuosic performance in the lead role of Matsuko.

An aimless twenty-year old drowning himself in booze after a recent break-up begins to come around while piecing together the life of the aunt he never knew he had in director Tetsuya Nakashima's adaptation of Muneki Yamada's original novel. Unable to deal with his latest break-up, Sho Kawajiri (Eita) has locked himself away in his Tokyo apartment to dull the pain in an emotion-numbing sea of alcohol and pornography. When his estranged father suddenly appears to present Sho with the ashes of the aunt that he had never known, the crestfallen son soon finds his sorrow replaced with a driving curiosity about his mysterious Aunt Matsuko (Miki Nakatani). Later, when Sho travels to his deceased aunt's ramshackle apartment, it begins to appear Matsuko is reaching out from the great beyond to take her nephew a guided tour of her tragic life. As a child, Matsuko's father lavished attention on the girl's chronically-ill sister as the healthier Matsuko sat love-starved on the sidelines. Though she would eventually grow to become a popular junior high school teacher in her hometown, Matsuko's career was cut unexpectedly short when she boldly took the blame for a theft that was actually committed by her prized pupil Ryu. In the years that followed, Matsuko's desperate search for love would lead her into a series of abusive relationships with me incapable of coping with her smothering affections. Later, after falling from grace as a sex worker and serving a stint in prison, Matsuko crosses paths with her favorite student Ryo and finally believes she has found true love. Unfortunately for Matsuko, Ryo has become a violent gangster, and the person she thought would finally bring the love she had always longed for soon abandons her. Now left alone in the world and bereft of the life-affirming love that once seemed so closely within reach, Matsuko wanders down a corrosive path of self-destruction that will eventually seal her own grim fate.

Shou's father Norio finds his son in a rather meaningless existence in Tokyo dominated by alcohol and porn videos. Having left home two years earlier to pursue life as a musician, Shou has left his band and his girlfriend has left him. His father asks a favor, that Shou clean out the apartment of his aunt Matsuko, who he says led a meaningless life until her murder at the age of 53. The apartment is filled with garbage bags and is even more unkempt than his apartment has become, and he becomes intrigued with his aunt as details of her life are supplied by a tattooed neighbor and others. Her feelings of neglect by her father Tsunehiro, who favored her chronically ill younger sister, Kumi, translated into becoming a dutiful junior high school teacher devoted to her students until being forced to resign after being blamed for the theft of some money by one of them. Leaving her family due to the disgrace, she had a series of affairs with lovers who physically abused her and did a stint as a massage parlor girl due to her beauty. After her pimp lover dumped her and gave her share of earnings to his new lover, they argued and after killing him she left by train and contemplated suicide. Dissuaded by a lonely barber, she happily set out to build a quiet life with him until the police came to charge her with murder. Upon her release from prison she silently slipped away after finding that the barber had started a new family. Becoming a 'Yakusa Girl' she rationalized that it was better to be on the run with a mobster than be alone. However, her mobster lover rejected her after being released from a term in prison and she became an eccentric recluse. Shou concludes that his aunt fulfilled his ex-girlfriend's parting comment about it being better to give to others rather than expecting to receive.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 13 March, 2011.

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