Memories of Matsuko

When Matsuko (Miki Nakatani) suddenly gets killed, her alienated brother Norio (Tetsuya Nakashima) sends his son to sort out her estate. The mission becomes an adventure through a house full of chaos. In what looks like a rubbish heap, Sho (Eita) finds things that bear witness of his aunt’s strange life. He finds out why Matsuko lived without the love of her family and therefore lost the right to know her nephew. Her fall from honour ruined her chance to be loved.

Tetsuya Nakashima, the man behind Kamikaze Girls (2004), paints in Memories of Matsuko a portrait with parallels to mental disorders, samurais and Hara-Kiri. Matsuko’s symbolic knife is stabbed and slowly twisted into her stomach. While life moves slowly along, she forces herself to feel every detail of her deadly wound’s ramifications. Love, violence and pain become her map towards a life where honour can possibly be regained.

Memories of Matsuko is in many ways a fantastic film. Director Nakashima has used music, sensitive surrealism and kitsch to make a refreshing film cocktail. Miki Nakatani, also known from the Ringu films, here puts her talents as singer and actress to good use. The film about Matsuko is bleak, captivating and beautiful. Through animation and marvellous filmic devices we are served an unforgettably tragicomic life story. The film’s style and imagination are reminiscent of Western directors like Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Baz Luhrmann. The film has received several prizes, including the Japanese Academy Awards for Best Actress, Best Editing and Best Film Music. baa