Memories of Matsuko

A geisha of a movie, it satisfied me in every conceivable way. Most will be distracted by the magical realism takes spread into the movie, but I'm too seasoned of a watcher to take special notice. The thing is all the costumed layers peeled apart, there is a moving character study at the core which has enough ring of truth to it. I can solely survive on movies of this kind.

If Wes Anderson and Baz Luhrmann had co-directed AMELIE, you would likely get something close to this; embracing contradictions at every turn by mixing silly with sincere, profundity with superficiality, the film remains firmly grounded on Nakatani's extraordinarily moving performance as Matsuko (and convincingly ages from her 20s to her 50s). Splashy and exuberant, but balanced by a dark underpinning of tragedy, this is a draining and exhaustive compilation of scenes (or memories) of a life.

Very fun and strange film that uses a bright colour palette and humour to tell a story that would otherwise be harrowing and depressing.

A very heartbreaking film, but there's ultimately something strangely comforting about just how ridiculously sad it is, that glimmer of hope shining through all of Matsuko's misfortune. The soundtrack is just yummylicious.

A quirky, enjoyable Japanese film. Reminiscent of "Amelie" in some ways, "Memories of Matsuko" is centered on, who else, a girl named Matsuko. Unlike Amelie, though, it's not all fun and games in this film. As a matter of fact, most of it is very sad. This film has comedy, but it also has a whole lot of drama and even some romance. It's just a really lovable, wonderful film.

Very stylistic cinematography to go along with the touching yet tragic life of Matsuko. At times it feels like the story might wander off, but everything fits into place.

One of the most heartbreaking movies i have ever seen. It`s like a great greek tragedy of modern times, told in form of a musical!Sounds strange? You have to see for yourself and witness a brilliant picture.

Tadaima.

"??????????"

It was so beautifully heartbreaking. The prison scene was my favorite.

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Some will find this sad tale – of a life spent in degradation and suffering until its ultimate transcendence in death and in the memories of the living – affecting, and clearly an enormous effort was involved in the production, but the MTV aesthetic and unrelenting schmaltzy melodramatics were too kitschy for this viewer.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

There are a lot of whimsical elements here, and they are done superbly in a way that doesn't detract from the story. But the second half of the film doesn't feel focused and drags on to an unrewarding conclusion.

Memories of Matsuko is a movie with a lot of ups and downs. Actually, it's mostly downs. But with that said, it's an excellent Japanese film.

A mix of Citizen Kane, frequent hallucinations and dreams, Disney, stories within stories, musical numbers that look like music videos, huge doses of kitsch, attempts at poignancy, lullaby music, the most ridiculous lighting ever, an eclectic choice of cinematography, both adult and childish humour, larger than life characters and hilariously, painfully unrelenting tragedy. I have no idea how to feel about this film..

Quite a unique film. It holds your attention throughout. Strange juxtapositions of vaudeville meets little shop of horrors. Quite interesting, even though half of the time I was thinking to myself "what the hell is this?" Very interesting composition with narratives intertwining and magic realism inter-dispersed. It also reminded me of Amelie in style. However the content was so contradictorily morbid and uplifting that the humor always carried a twinge of sadness.

Incredible art direction and style, but its story ultimately wasn't compelling enough.

Weird, often funny tragedy that doesn't quite work, at least not for me. It's definitely worth seeing, though, for its flashes of brilliance, Miki Nakatani and its general nuttiness.

I'm glad I gave this another go.