One reason for the lasting popularity of "Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story)," the 1953 Yasujiro Ozu masterpiece about a momentous visit by an elderly couple to their adult children in Tokyo, is that all too many of its viewers can see themselves in the film's selfish son and daughter who don't have time for Mom and Dad, rather than the considerate daughter-in-law played by Setsuko Hara. When Chishu Ryu's kindly father thanks her for all the trouble she has taken, the needles of guilt drive straight into the audience's collective solar plexus — or is that just me?
It's not that we neglectful children don't have our rationales, and sometimes good ones. One of the best belongs to the title heroine of Keisuke Yoshida's "Mugiko-san to" ("With Mugiko"). An aspiring anime voice actress working in an anime shop in Tokyo, Mugiko (Maki Horikita) was abandoned by her mom, Saiko (Kimiko Yo), early on and has no memory of her — only resentment.
Then, three years after Dad dies, Saiko reappears at the apartment that a now grown-up Mugiko shares with her older brother Norio (Ryuhei Matsuda) and asks to move in, apparently assuming she can take up where she left off so many years ago. Mugiko at first rejects this stranger, as does Norio, but he proves as weather-vane-ish as his mother (whom he remembers better than his younger sister does). But soon after Saiko ensconces herself in the apartment, with Norio's approval, he makes a quick exit, leaving Mugiko alone with this unwelcome roommate.