Memories of Matsuko (2006) dir Tetsuya Nakashima. A young man is asked by his father to clear the flat of an aunt he didn’t know existed, who has just died. Aunt Matsuko was a young teacher whose life was ruined after she unwisely defended a boy accused of stealing. Forced to resign, and rejected by her family, she descends into a seedy underworld of massage parlours and violent boyfriends, living out her later years in eccentric isolation.
A hard-hitting movie and one of the best live-action Japanese movies I’ve seen.