Misunderstanding about the ending SPOILER
I've just seen this film with a few friends and when we discussed it afterwards, there was some definite misunderstanding about the way the main guy and the woman's relationship ended. I thought it was just my friends, but I noticed the same reaction from one of the reviews posted here, so I thought I'd mention this just in case others are wondering the same.
The way in which the director chooses to bring the relationship between Yuichi and Mitsuyo to a close seems like a strange choice – it might have worked, but nothing we have seen has led us to expect it, and as it comes so out of the blue, it is hard to believe in. It is, quite frankly, a bit of a cheat – a wrong footing that casts a somewhat distorted light on all the searing emotional honesty we have seen previous to that.
So, the misunderstanding is that towards the end when the police are closing in on them, Yuichi suddenly turns on Mitsuyo and tries to strangle her, making some viewers conclude that he never loved her after all or that he was just using her all the time. NO, NO, NO, NO! That was not the case at all. He did what he did at that moment, because he didn't want her to get arrested with him as an accessory or for perverting the course of justice. So, in order to save her, he wanted to make sure that when the Police barged in, it would look like he was trying to kill her, i.e. she would look like the helpless victim.
Also, in the Japanese society, being associated with or related to a criminal can ostracise you, even if you're completely innocent, to the point where some end up committing suicide. There are so many real life stories of family members, partners, close friends of a criminal losing their jobs, encountering severe bullying, having to move a number of times because neighbours don't want you or spread nasty rumours about you, etc. So, obviously, if Mitsuyo was found to have willingly gone on the run with Yuichi, she and her family would've suffered the consequences for the rest of their lives and he didn't want that. So, to prevent all that, he had to make her look like the victim and it had to look real for the Police to believe that she'd really been in danger all this time and must have been taken against her will.
He also wanted her to move on and rebuild her life, so he decided there and then to remind her that he had indeed killed someone before and therefore no good for her too.
It was such a powerful yet painful and sad scene especially when he tries to touch her finger for the last time, but can't, because he's too far. There was so much said in that one scene, without a single word. Great film overall.
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