Too much of everything

Pretty Good

Crappy film

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

One day, a woman is dismissed from her job and her stormy life starts. This movie describes a woman's lifetime. Her name is Matsuko and she is very unfortunate woman. In this movie, she meets with misfortunes one after another. I first watch this movie, I think this is a wonderful movie. Although the story of this movie is so simple, after finishing watching this movie, I was made consider a meaning of life. Matsuko's life tells us importance of living as hard as we could, no matter how trying the circumstances. Another good points of this movie is that this movie develops the story with nice tempo. Direction of this movie is so comical, such as animations and music, so we can watch serious story delightfully. However, this movie is not only comical, but also moving. Matsuko teaches us importance thing, so I want many people watch this movie.

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.

Profoundly sad, deeply moving (upbeat) musical about a 20 year old young man named Sho with no direction. His father shows up one day and asks him to clean out the apartment of the aunt he never knew, the titled Matsuko. It seems Matsuko had been found beaten to death four days earlier and the father had come to Tokyo to have her cremated. As Sho goes through his aunt's belonging and talks to the people who knew her the course of her life is revealed in song.Unique one of a kind film rightly won tons of awards around the world but has yet to get any sort of release in the US. I'm not surprised. The profoundly sad story is in contrast to the upbeat musical numbers. How do you sell this to a western audience that wants things to be a certain way? You can't which is a profoundly sad thing since this is in its way a truly great film. Personally I don't like the darkness of its tale but at the same time this film had me sobbing on more than one occasion. This is also a film of such technical skill that it puts most Hollywood musicals (dare I say films period?) to shame Personally I would love to write a fuller review up but I just can't do it. Its just a place I can't go to.What is the measure of a life? by what we receive or what we give? One of the best films I've seen this year

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.