I Am What I Am

そばかす
Sobakasu

North American Premiere. Thirty-year-old Kasumi (Toko Miura in her first starring role since Drive My Car) works at a call center and lives at home with her family, often pestered by her worrisome mother who desperately wants her to get married, even going so far as to set up an omiai or arranged marriage interview to marry her off. The reality is that Kasumi cannot harbor romantic feelings for others. Aided by her cheerful and equally outsider friend Maho, played by the ever-charming Atsuko Maeda, Kasumi simply desires to live without the rigid gender roles and expectations that dictate how young women should submit themselves to constructed ideals of love and marriage. An anti-rom com by any measure, I Am What I Am is a liberating departure from the conceit that romantic love equates happiness and a life fulfilled.

Dir. Shinya Tamada, 2022, 105 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Toko Miura, Atsuko Maeda.

Part of JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film 2023
July 26—August 6, 2023

JAPAN CUTS is the largest showcase of contemporary Japanese cinema in North America and an annual highlight of New York’s cinema scene.

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Image: © 2022 I Am What I Am Production Committee.

JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film is generously supported by Shiseido Americas and The Globus Family. Additional support is provided by Sapporo U.S.A. and BentOn.

Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, David Toberisky, and Friends of Film. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film. Housing assistance is provided by the Kitano Hotel, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film.

Special Thanks to Joel Neville Anderson; Emi Ueyama (ARTicle Films); Yasuyuki Nagano (ColorBird Inc); Yuko Takagi (FreeStone Productions); Moeko Fujii; Keiko Yoshida (Gaga Corp.); Saori Takenaka (Geidai); Chance Huskey (GKIDS); Pearl Chan (Good Move Media); Eugene Harng; Toshiyuki Hasegawa; Miki Zeze (Kadokawa Corp.); KENTARO (KTRFILMS); Akiko Uchida (King Records); Maki Shimizu (Kino Films); Elizabeth Lennard; Ayako Ito (Nagoya); Mami Furukawa and Umi Yamamoto (Nikkatsu); Gerald Abraham (Okamoto Kitchen); Shinji Sakoda; Mark Schilling; Dan Sullivan; Adam Torel (Third Window Films); Shiori Takata (Toei Co. Ltd); Sam van der Meer; Makoto Kawamura (Voice); Kousuke Ono (Wa Entertainment, Inc.); K.F. Watanabe; Akiko Yano.