Genre: Drama
Starring:
Riko Narumi as Juri Oshima
Atsuko Maeda as Hinako Hanada
Mariko Ishihara as Satsuki Oshima
Yoshizumi Ishihara as Masashi Sugitani
Sosuke Takaoka as Hiroyuki Tamura
Release year: 2007
Language: Japanese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis:
Based on a novel by 30-year-old Kaori Mado, HOW TO BECOME MYSELF, tells the tale of two girls faced with that typical adolescent choice — fit in or be cast out. Juri portrays the role of the ideal daughter at home and in school, but all she really wants is for her parents to stop fighting.
Deep down, she admires her popular primary school classmate Kanako. However, Kanako suddenly becomes the class outcast. Years later in high school and still craving popularity, Kanako begins receiving mysterious emails about a popular girl named Hina. Inspired, she adopts this fake persona. But what happens when the emails stop?
At first glance, this seems like another “seishun eiga” or youth drama. But Director Jun Ichikawa transcends the clichés associated with this popular film genre and focuses on how two girls struggle to define their individual identities in modern Japanese society.
Rating: ?/10
User rating:
Review:
" “How To Become Myself” is an introspective film centered around two main characters who appear to be normal, well adjusted girls on the outside at least. The dilemma’s they face are more internalized, none of which involve the more common teen topics you may think of in teen films (romance, sex, drugs, prostitution, terminal illness). In fact outside of a brief romance shown towards the end of the film, there’s not even a love story angle in the movie (surprised me right there). So what else is there to be shown in “How to Become Myself” ? The answer is in the title.
Juri is an attractive high school student. But, she’s not the most popular girl in class, that title belongs to Hinako Hanada, and she’s not the resident outcast, that title belongs Kubota Manami. She empathizes with both of those students, although she hasn’t spoken with either of them. She lives behind her own facade of chirpiness and hipness in front of her classmates, fearful that one day they may discover her ordinary real self.
At home, Juri feels like the guardian of their house. Their parents frequently quarrel at night and Juri listens and feels obligated to prevent their fights from getting worse. She believes that by becoming a model daughter this will prevent her family from dissolving.
At the end of her middle school she finally speaks with Kubota Manami. Although Manami was the most popular girl at one point, she fell in stature to become the outcast of her classroom. During their brief conversation, the two girls share their feelings of detachment for their fellow students and the games that they play in their everyday lives.
Now two years later, Juri is in high school and working on her first novel. She’s at a lost on what to write about, so her instructor advises her to just lie, as that is what writers do when creating fiction. Juri still drawing a blank decides to anonymously email Kubota Manami from her middle school class. Manami has forgotten about Juri but they start exchanging emails on a daily basis. Juri advises Manami on things to do to become popular at her new school, while Juri finds inspiration from the emails to finish her novel.
The pacing of “How To Become Myself” is deliberate and unrushed. The movie’s visual are equally subdue, but spiced up by the occasional split screens and on screen graphics. The graphics appeared when the girls exchanged emails, displaying the messages shown on their flipscreen phones. Purists may find the pacing and simple visuals to be appealing but I found it uninspiring. The onscreen graphics and split screens didn’t strike me in either a good or bad way. The manner in which those scenes were shown did bring to mind “Take Care of My Cat,” which I felt made better use of cellphones and had a better story to boot. The soundtrack was two notes away from Muzak territory.
The dilemmas that the girls faced may possibly reverberate with teenage girls, but outside of that group I’m not sure how much the film has to offer. I found the movie to be dull and even more detached from the main characters’ identity problems. The movie was directed by Jun Ichikawa (Tokyo Marigold , Tsugami, Bu Su), who will be 60 years old next year. The generation gap between filmmaker and subject matter was all too tangible in “How To Become Myself.” "
Source: Lunapark6
Preview:
Related Links:
Online Streaming: Veoh
MU:
Part 01 - Part 02 - Part 03 - Part 04 - Part 05 - Part 06 - Part 07 - Part 08 - SUB
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