Thursday, December 13, 2007

Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata (How to Become Myself)


This movie by 60 years old Ichikawa Jun based on a 200 pages book by 30 years old Kaori Mado (the story is sort of autobiographical) is a very good movie as a movie and tells a common story in quite a different way, which makes it a lot more interesting. Tells about the coming of age of two girls that know each other since elementary school and how each explores the answer to the infamous question: who am I? It is about the “real” me and the “fake” me that I feel it has to be taken more in the eastern culture way than in the western culture way. But of course there is more in the story than the little I’m telling you.

Have to say that this movie was a big surprise as I was expecting some manga/anime story turn into a movie with all the special editing and exaggerations. But no, this one is very serene with a very real universal story. A story that will show some facets of what you perhaps lived when you were the characters age.

The acting is very good, especially 14 years-old Riko Narumi that’s call in several sites a “child prodigy actress” and she’s very impressive here. The movie has some outstanding editing like split screens, fix background with several frames over -some with transparent background that make them truly great visual compositions. This is a movie with a lot of phone e-mails and text messaging which have to say blows my mind to realize that current generations have so many ways to keep in touch and makes me think that I would have loved to have these options when I was that age. Sight.

There is an interview with Ichikawa that I enjoyed reading, is part of a Masterclass lecture given in the 2007 Japanese Film Festival at the Singapore Film Society and he speaks about this movie and among many interesting things says that Ozu is “the director I love the most”. If you feel like reading it go here. And because it has a list of what it seems very good Japanese films I'm recording this link to the Singapore Film Society. Also there is a very good article that objectively praises this movie and since I like it a lot I’m sharing the link if you feel like reading it go here.

Gee, I really got lost reading about this movie, but not often I found such good sites and/or well-written articles. I loved this movie, so much that I think I’ll write a story inspired by this movie, so those that know my other site check it soon for the story.

I suggest you see this movie is very touching and as some eastern viewers say “ is a life altering” experience.

Enjoy!

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