This is an excellent film to watch. The narrative style, music, art style and story will capture your mind and hearts. For those that are or have gone through similar events it will bring tears of everything...sorrow, sadness, happiness and hope.The acting is top notch by all the actors. The camera work and even the cgi's are well done. The music is a mixture and well thought out. The simple little song will get to you eventually, it's unbelievable. This is one of my few all best movies to watch over and over. I just love it. I highly recommend watching it if you haven't seen it yet. I think it will appeal a lot more to females but men like me when enjoy it just as much.Edit 12/01/2013 After reading some of the more recent reviews I feel, still, that so many simply cannot understand this movie. Those that claim to understand it the most are the worst as they completely missed the point. Yes it is about the good and bad in life but more importantly it is about this one person (or woman if you prefer) journal and why she took that journey. If you cannot understand the simple fact that although she initially wanted to break away she ultimately is really on a search to find family, a home. What started at the beginning is what ends at her life, simply beautiful. 90% of you don't even know what I mean by this.I am really astonish and sad for those that can't fully enjoy and understand this movie.

Who is Matsuko and what memories are these? Mitsuko was a born optimist, a fervent believer in human goodness. The memories, therefore, are inevitably sad as she discovers the journey along the yellow brick road can be tough haul. We discover Matsuko through her brother's quest when he hears of her death (she left home some fifteen years ago). Porn star, convict, hairdresser - these are all part of a less than glittering cv. This could easily have been an unremitting 2 hours of grimness and probably would have been were this film British. But director Tetsuya Nakashima throws everything into this including the kitchen sink, just as he did with his similarly surreal Kamikaze Girls. The result leaves you reeling as you run the gamut of emotions as the heroine's fate unravels.

I hadn't heard of this film till it appeared on television as part of a short season of Asian films. I'm glad that I decided to watch it though as it was a delightful film which made me laugh and cry.Shou is living alone doing nothing with his life till one day his father comes by and asks him to clear up the house of his aunt Matsuko who had been murdered. Up until then Shou had no knowledge of his aunt but as he sorts through her belongings and meets people who knew her he learns what an extraordinary life she had, some happy but much sad. It is especially sad at the end when we learn how she died after surviving many hardships.The film has a surreal appearance that reminded me of a cross between Amalie and the TV series Pushing Daisies due to the artificially vivid colours. If you want to see something different I'd certainly recommend this charming film.

This film will just blow you away! While I would say it was fairly sad at times, and you'll shake your head at the life choices the lead character made, the film will stay with you. It definitely has tearjerker moments, major ones. The acting is uniformly superb. I originally knew about the film through this site, because I am very impressed with the acting of Asuka Kurosawa ("A Snake Of June") and wanted to see her in a film in which you actually see her in her beauty (She boldly works in horror films, sometimes with distorted features, like "Kirie" and "Dead Waves"). She looks gorgeous in this film, but so does the title character. Like many films with a female name in them (think Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn), you'll fall in love, commiserate, get angry with and, ultimately, forgive her flaws. Is it perfect? No, it isn't. The rating of 10 stars has to do with the effect it had on me. It'll just stay with you. Thank goodness this wasn't an American film, it would have been sanitized and "fairy taled" to the point of manifesting ad nauseum. Its sad, you might cry, but you'll love it.