Plot

When Matsuko is murdered, her nephew, Sho, gets to progressively unveil the many details of her mysterious past, discovering she wasn't just a forgotten outcast and had led an intriguing yet bizarre life.

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 quiet life with him until the police came to charge her with murder. Upon her release from prison she silently slipped away after finding that 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 being released from a term in prison and she became 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.—Brian Greenhalgh

Following a breakup with his girlfriend, Sho Kawajiri sleeps 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.

From 1970 to 1971, Matsuko was a very popular junior high school music teacher in Okawa, Fukuoka. However, she was sexually harassed by the vice-principal when one of her students, Ryu, committed theft. Matsuko took the blame for him by stealing another person's money, and when Ryu joined in on the lie, Matsuko was fired from her job. Infuriated by the vice-principal's actions, Matsuko angrily packs her things at home and leaves, despite Kumi's protests.

Months later, Matsuko's brother, Norio, runs into her and Matsuko tells him that she is in a relationship with Tetsuya, an aspiring manga writer who regularly abuses her. Norio blames her for destroying their family and gives her some money while telling her that their father had died 3 months after she left. Returning home, Tetsuya begins to abuse her after she let Tetsuya's rival writer Okano see his work and walks away until night, she received a note reading: "Please forgive me for being born". During a rainstorm, Matsuko witnesses Tetsuya commit suicide by standing in front of a train, devastating her.

Six months later, Matsuko begins a relationship with Okano, but encounters his wife while visiting one day. After Okano's wife forces him to confess, he then blames Matsuko and breaks up with her before telling her that she has a beautiful body and giving her some money. Because of Okano's words before leaving, Matsuko goes to audition for a prostitute job and gets hired. A few months later, Matsuko returns home, where she reads her father's diary and is moved to tears at his concern for her disappearance. Kumi sees her and tries to hug her, but Matsuko pushes her away and runs back to her car.

Some time later, Matsuko is in a relationship with Onodera, a pimp. When she asks him for her salary, he nonchalantly replies that he has already given the money to another girl whom he will soon move in with, and the two get into a fight. During the struggle, Onodera pins Matsuko against a dressing mirror and insults her appearance, while Matsuko pulls a knife on Onodera, but he begins to strangle her. On the brink of losing consciousness, Matsuko loses her grip on the knife, which lands on Onodera's foot. As he wails over his injury and threatens to sue Matsuko, she seizes the opportunity to stab Onodera to death. Afterwards, she tries to commit suicide by jumping off the building, but is ultimately unable to, as her hands instinctively held onto the railings.

In the present, Sho discovers that his girlfriend broke up with him as she will be going to Uzbekistan with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. He also has a dream where a porn actress comes and kidnap him; the same actress later reveals herself to be Megumi Sawamura, Matsuko's best friend who knew each other in prison.

Back in the past, following Onodera's death, Matsuko boards a train to Tokyo, where she intends to commit suicide at the Tamagawa Aqueduct. However, she is stopped by Keji Shimazu, a barber who later gives Matsuko a new haircut at his salon. They make love that night and she becomes his assistant after Keji swears that he will always love her despite her past. The next day however, Matsuko is arrested for Onodera's murder, and she is sentenced to eight years in prison. After her release, she discovers that Keji has since gotten married and has a son.

In the present, Megumi takes Sho to dinner and tells him that she met Matsuko at a salon in Ginza where Matsuko worked. But at one night, they went drinking to Megumi's house and hearing Megumi's husband's voice speak, Matsuko goes back to her home and is lonely again at her birthday. Megumi also tells Sho about the time that Matsuko wanted to end their friendship after she quit her job at the salon, and the last time she saw Matsuko before her death, where all she could do was give her business card to Matsuko. Megumi tells Sho that he must always remember that Matsuko is still with him whenever he think about her, and takes him back to Matsuko's house. However, a man enters and attacks Sho, demanding to know where Matsuko is; he is dejected upon learning of her death, and reveals himself to be Ryu.

Back in the past, Ryu has since become a yakuza, and sees Matsuko at the salon. Later, she has him take her home, and she begins to tell him everything that has happened to her. Ryu is remorseful for causing her misery, especially since he is in love with her, but Matsuko forgives him and returns his feelings. One day, Matsuko tells Ryu that she has quit her job at the salon, while also trying to stop him from going back to the yakuza. After Megumi tries to stop her, she pledges that no matter what Ryu becomes, she will always love him. Some time later, Ryu asks Matsuko to meet him at a hotel, where she finds him severely beaten by the yakuza due to his gambling debts. When Matsuko mentions starting a family, Ryu pushes her out and calls the police to tell them that he has killed her, to give Matsuko time to escape. Afterwards, Ryu is arrested and sent to prison; Matsuko faithfully awaits his release, but Ryu continues to regret his actions against Matsuko wishes to leave her alone to save her from further harm. Following Ryu's release from prison, Matsuko welcomes him back, but he hits her before running away, leaving her alone again.

In the present, a regretful Ryu plans on killing himself, but the police suddenly arrive, and Ryu loudly proclaims that he killed Matsuko before getting into a fight with the police. However, one officer tells Sho that they already have the actual murderer and were just trying to ask him some questions. Sho tells Norio that he wishes that he could have met his aunt, but Norio reveals that when Sho was still young, he already encountered her sitting at the riverbank, when Norio was taking her to the train station. After revealing that Kumi has passed away the previous year, he tells her to never come back. Sho then tells Norio that she rented a house near the river and would always cry by the riverbank, driving Norio to tears.

Back in the past, Matsuko rents a house near the river at Kita-Senju Station, where she spends her days eating and drinking. One day, she sees a performance by Hikaru Genji on TV, and develops a crush on its leader, Kohji Uchiumi. She begins to buy all his merchandise, watching live performances and writing fan-letters to him, but becomes furious when he does not reply.

Eventually, she begins to lose control of herself and begin to write the phrase: "Please forgive me for being born" on her walls. While out to get medicine, Megumi sees her and tries to talk to her, but is rebuffed. Afterwards, Megumi tells her that she is looking for a hairdresser and gives her a business card, but Matsuko refuses Megumi's offer. That night, she has a dream of cutting Kumi's hair, and she is inspired to find Megumi's business card. Meanwhile, a gang of high school students accidentally hit her with a can, but when she tells them to go back home, one of the students hits her in the head and the rest of them beat her to death.

Afterwards, a light appears in front of Matsuko and her soul travels back in time to her house. Eventually, Matsuko's soul stands in front of staircase to heaven, where Kumi is waiting for her and welcomes her back.