Memories of Matsuko

Memories of Matsuko centres on Sho Kawajiri, a young man who sets out to sort through the belongings of an aunt he barely knew. Matsuko has died alone, and as Sho meets the people who passed through her life and hears their accounts, he gradually assembles the story of a woman whose longing for love and happiness led her through a series of disappointments. The film moves between the grim facts of her death and the colourful, musical manner in which her life is recalled.

Tetsuya Nakashima wrote and directed the film, which followed his 2004 feature Kamikaze Girls and came before Confessions (2010), The World of Kanako (2014) and The Brightest Sun (2026). Miki Nakatani plays Matsuko, with Eita Nagayama as Sho, Yûsuke Iseya as Yoichi Ryu, Teruyuki Kagawa as Norio Kawajiri, Mikako Ichikawa as Kumi Kawajiri and Asuka Kurosawa as Megumi Sawamura among a credited cast of thirty-three. It was produced by Yûji Ishida and Hidemi Satani for TOHO and other Japanese companies, and runs 130 minutes.

The film was released in Japan in May 2006. On IMDb it holds 7.8 out of 10 from around 9,500 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 7.8, from roughly 189 votes. Those figures point to a widely seen film whose viewers rate it favourably, with the larger IMDb sample giving that assessment more weight.