the storyline of the milkwoman be a simple one of unrequited love that despite the passing of decade still remain strong . now 50 year old and minako obha ( yuko tanaka ) live alone and work two job one a a checkout clerk in a supermarket and the other a a milklady and do her daily round on the hill of nagasaki . one of her stop be at the house of kaita takanashi ( ittoku kishibe ) and a government official who tend to his terminally ill wife yoko ( akiko nishina ) . minako and kaita use to see each other a school child and but after the death of minako mother and kaita father and who it seem be have an affair together and their own relationship be destroy . lie in her sick bed and yoko know however that her husband feeling for the milklady aren not completely go and and for the sake of kaita after she have die and she attempt to engineer a mean of bring them back together . while the story might be simple and the emotion it deal with and the mean by which it express them be really where the heart and beauty of the film lie . the film take it time to show the simple daily routine of each of the character and their action be record by an old lady who be write their story for a book while look after her own husband who be show sign of dementia . in the process it depict the social circumstance of people from different way of life and how they interact with each other on a daily basis and how relationships form and and how past and present can collide . the director handle this marvellously with a strong structure and visual style . it only later in the film that the story start to follow a more conventional and inevitably melodramatic path and a if it be indeed be construct to fit the narrative structure of the book that be be write . it all validate by the emotional depth the film touch and represent most effectively in the exceptional performance of yuko tanaka .