If there is heart braking urban fairy tale, it may look like this movie. Story of a woman who comes across 'My life is over' points too many times that she finally realizes that nothing matters in the end. Matsuko is devastating and beautiful. The story of a beautiful girl who grew up dreaming for a beautiful like any child, faces the cruel reality, makes wrong decisions ends up in a trash. This movie reaffirms that what may happen in the end, the life is just as meaningful.Acting is top notch, music, cinematography and especially narration is brilliant. this is must see and you wouldn't regret.

When a twenty-something NEET is sent by his father to clean out the apartment of his estranged aunt, 53-year-old Matsuko, he becomes intrigued by the life story of this reclusive, shabby, old-before-her-time woman. As he pieces together her life, he unlocks various family secrets, and learns a thing or two about his own life.Tetsuya Nakashima's film is energetic and thoughtful, in turns hilarious and deeply moving. It's hyper-stylised, with Technicolor vividly utilized, song-and-dance numbers, and some schlock violence straight from the Nikkatsu back catalogue. But it all gels into a magical whole. Interestingly, there is a sly poke at the Showa-nostalgia genre enjoying a contemporary flurry in Japan, the pastiche of the visuals undercut by the brutalities the economic and social mores of the time inflict on Matsuko. The fact that she meets her fate at the hands of the feral children of Heisei is no random element.Miki Nakatani has matured into Japan's most fascinating and watchable actress, the combination of beauty and vulnerability never more alluring than in her portrayal here. But it is Nakashima's slick script, elliptical structuring, and especially his brisk editing that make this film so special. I was singing 'makete, nobashite' for days afterward. One of the best Japanese films of the 21st century.

The film tells the story of a woman named Matsuko, who is recently deceased, as her nephew Sho uncovers her story piece by piece by talking to people she knew. Matsuko's life is tragic. She seems to go from hard times to hard times. But despite this despair her heart is always open. Her younger sister is very ill and as a result, her father is often to preoccupied with her to show young Matsuko the love that she craves from him. As a result Matsuko is desperate to be loved, and cannot help but become head over heels in love with every man that she has relations with. Unfortunately this leads to her being abused by many of these men and getting into lots of trouble along the way. She sees her life as a fairy tale, which the director illustrates by modelling the movie on a classic musical romance. The film's style is bright and magical which means that, like Matsuko herself, you feel as if this tale can only have a happy ending. Unfortunately for Matsuko her tale is actually very real and tragic and ends with her falling through the cracks of society and dying alone and dirty in a mess of an apartment.The first time I saw this film I cried quite epically and carried on doing so for about half an hour after the film was finished. Which is very unusual, because I had never cried over a film up until that moment. I could not stop thinking about the film for a few days afterwards and even now I'll think of it from time to time and some of those emotions come back. There's just something about this film which seems to deeply penetrate your emotional centre in a way that you would not expect a film to do. I would definitely recommend seeing this film, as it is a cinematic masterpiece.

The premise was intriguing, the actors were fine and, given a competent director, this could have been a very good film. Unfortunately, the director is some hack who thinks MTV-style rock videos is the pinnacle of film art and many of the more confusing flashback sequences play out as such. Switching viewpoints also didn't make sense as the boy had no way of figuring out that part given the data at his disposal. Worse is that I saw this on the same evening I enjoyed the vastly superior Japanese film ALWAYS - SUNSET ON 3rd STREET and the contrast between that one and the disjointed MEMORIES OF ... nearly fried my neural pathways. People who enjoy 'different' for different's sake might enjoy it, but otherwise, steer well clear.