Jarring, colorful, irreverent, heartbreaking, this is a weird, but affecting, movie.

My only complaint is the sexualized content. I don't believe there is ever a reason for sexual content in any story, but especially not in a story about a character who is forced by her life circumstances into prostitution and other demoralizing and compromising situations that she did not wish to be in. It cheapens the message.

Criticisms over the sexual content aside, damn does this movie break your heart into a million little pieces. The forceful combo of weird and brutal and bright reminds me of some other quirky Japanese films I've enjoyed such as Wool 100% and Rinko's Restaurant and I'm a Cyborg but That's Okay, and that is definitely not going to make me complain.

More importantly, however, ever since finishing this movie, I've really wanted to watch it again, so they clearly did something right when it came to the story. The biggest take away from the film for me was this line at the end 'A life isn't valued by what one receives, but by what one gives.'

I would say Memories of Matsuko conveys that message fairly well.