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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