Memories of Matsuko
2006 film by Tetsuya Nakashima
Memories of Matsuko (Japanese: 嫌われ松子の一生, Hepburn: Kiraware Matsuko no Isshō; lit. "Life of Despised Matsuko") is a 2006 Japanese tragicomedy musical film written and directed by Tetsuya Nakashima. It is based on a Japanese novel by Muneki Yamada.
It has not yet received North American distribution, though in its North American premiere at the 2007 New York Asian Film Festival, the film received the Audience Award with an average rating of 9.2.
Summary
Following a breakup with his girlfriend, Sho Kawajiri sinks into an existential crisis and hides himself at home, before his father, Norio, pays him a surprise visit. Sho is surprised to see an urn with the ashes of his aunt Matsuko, who he has never met. Sho is asked to help clean her old room, and while doing so, he gradually learns more about the life of his estranged aunt.
During Matsuko's early life, she struggled to gain the attention of her father, who was mostly concerned with her chronically ill sister, Kumi. This created an imbalance where Matsuko's needs were less likely to be met and she constantly feels unloved.
From 1970 to 1971, Matsuko was a very popular junior high school music teacher in Ōkawa, Fukuoka.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Memories of Matsuko” as 2006 film by Tetsuya Nakashima. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2006 film by Tetsuya Nakashima. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q953722. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2007, 1970 and 1971.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Memories of Matsuko” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.