Film: Memories Of Matsuko
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 130 mins
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Starring: Miki Nakatani, Eita, Yusuke Iseya, Teruyuki Kagawa, YosiYosi Arakawa
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Fantasy/Musical/Mystery
Studio: Third Window
Format: Blu-ray
Country: Japan
Based on the acclaimed novel by Muneki Yamada, Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories Of Matsuko comes to Blu-ray for the first time, after being adapted into a television series in its native Japan, and garnering worldwide acclaim from audiences and critics alike.
Young slacker Shô Kawajira (Eita) has moved to Tokyo with dreams of making it as a rock star, but soon finds himself leaving his band and breaking up with his girlfriend.
After stalking the streets of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in search of a seedy thrill, he is abruptly woken by his well-to-do father, Norio, who arrives carrying a casket of ashes and some troubling news. He informs his son that his 53-year-old aunt, Matsuko, has been found murdered. He explains that she has led an entirely meaningless life and has been estranged from the family for thirty years. Previously unaware of her existence, Shô is uninterested until Norio asks him to clean out her apartment for him.
After arriving at the dilapidated building and beginning to sort through the piles of rubbish in the apartment, Shô finds an old photograph which allows him to begin to piece together elements of Matsuko’s life and the events leading to her murder. Intrigued, he learns more from the people that knew her in life, and soon discovers that her time on Earth was anything but meaningless.
After feeling like she was playing second fiddle to her terminally ill sister, Matsuko struggled with trying to win her father’s affections, eventually making him proud by becoming a school teacher, only to be dismissed after trying to protect a student, Ryu, who was accused of theft. What followed was a series of abusive relationships, plagued by suicide, murder and crime, including a spell in prison, work as a hostess girl and eventually becoming a Yakuza’s girlfriend.
Her intriguing story unfolds as Shô works his way through her belongings. Shô has some unexpected encounters of his own while aiming to solve the mystery surrounding her untimely death…
At first glance, it seems apparent that Memories Of Matsuko owes a debt of gratitude to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie - from the artificial vibrancy of the colour palette to the playful nature of the narrative and naïve innocence of the protagonist - and in many ways this comparison is justified. However, Memories Of Matsuko carries with it a darker edge, and uses the fabricated sense of innocence to juxtapose the potentially disturbing and challenging aspects of Matsuko’s interesting life. Moments of hardship and terror are interspersed with impromptu musical numbers and scenery straight out of a child’s pop-up book. This playfulness continues into the ‘real’ world of Shô as he meets a colourful cast of characters, ranging from a tattooed mentalist punk to a vivacious porn star, who all share a connection to his late aunt.
One of the most engaging elements of the film is Matsuko herself, perfectly portrayed by Miki Takatani. She forms a perfect balance between the extroverted surrealism and fragility of the character, without becoming too melodramatic. Each stage of Matsuko’s life requires a shift of tone which proves effortless, exemplified by one of the most endearing running gags. As a child vying for her father’s affections, Matsuko finds that by pulling a face, in tribute to a Manzai act they see together, she could make her father laugh, thus taking some of the attention away from her sister, Kumi (Mikako Ichikawa). Throughout her life she continues to rely on this facial contortion as a coping mechanism in times of duress (of which she experiences many). As the troubling situations Matsuko finds herself in mount up, pulling this face becomes customary, with often hilarious results. However, as these situations grow from simply troubling to outright shocking, and the character retreats within herself on the road to becoming the eccentric recluse we know has just been killed, this act stops, sadly signalling an end to the childlike innocence of Matsuko, just as she has been corrupted and abused by those around her.
Matsuko laments that she needs a man to be happy, despite each one of them mercilessly beating and abusing her. This perseverance in the face of such adversity is rewarded by the ascent into heaven once Shô deciphers the mystery surrounding her murder, but is a questionable end result for someone who does little to escape her situation and defends these men to the detriment of her few positive relationships. This mixed moral message offers little to the film’s success, and somewhat undermines Matsuko’s complex and interesting characterisation.
The perfect balance of the film’s narrative tone is exacerbated by the unique visuals, which add a sense of melancholic surrealism to proceedings. This film really finds its home on Blu-ray, where the crisp, energetic palette glows and adds richness to the film that mesmerizes in high definition.
A vibrant, surreal and exciting film, Memories Of Matsuko is equal parts murder mystery, bildungsroman and fantasy. Takatani’s excellent performance forms the backbone of the narrative, and the superb art direction and imaginative use of a variety of narrative forms seems perfectly tailored to the Blu-ray format. RB
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