Additional information
Shou`s father Norio finds his son in a rather meaningless existence in Tokyo
dominated by alcohol and porn videos. Having left home two years earlier to
pursue life as a musician, Shou has left his band and his girlfriend has left
him. His father asks a favor, that Shou clean out the apartment of his aunt
Matsuko, who he says led a meaningless life until her murder at the age of
53. The apartment is filled with garbage bags and is even more unkempt than
his apartment has become, and he becomes intrigued with his aunt as
details of her life are supplied by a tattooed neighbor and others. Her feelings
of neglect by her father Tsunehiro, who favored her chronically ill younger
sister, Kumi, translated into becoming a dutiful junior high school teacher
devoted to her students until being forced to resign after being blamed for the
theft of some money by one of them. Leaving her family due to the disgrace,
she had a series of affairs with lovers who physically abused her and did a
stint as a massage parlor girl due to her beauty. After her pimp lover dumped
her and gave her share of earnings to his new lover, they argued and after
killing him she left by train and contemplated suicide. Dissuaded by a lonely
barber, she happily set out to build a quite life with him until the police came
to charge her with murder. Upon her release from prison she silently slipped
away but found the barber had started a new family. Becoming a `Yakusa
Girl` she rationalized that it was better to be on the run with a mobster than
be alone. However, her mobster lover rejected her after a term in prison and
she becomes an eccentric recluse. Shou concludes that his aunt fulfilled his
ex-girlfriend's parting comment about it being better to give to others rather
than expecting to receive.
