How to Become Myself is a Japanese film directed by Ichikawa Jun. It was shown here during the Japanese Film Festival, so the title should be familiar to some. I didn’t get to watch the movie then, but I’ve seen people mentioning about it in their blogs. As I didn’t know much about the plot, what initially got me interested was Narumi Riko playing the lead in the movie. She first caught my eye in 1 Litre of Tears, and she’s good actress, especially for someone her age.

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 becomes the class outcast suddenly. 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 Ichikawa Jun 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.

You can read a good review of the movie here, so I won’t say too much about it.

We play many different roles in life, and we show different sides of ourselves when we are with different people. Sometimes we even try to be someone we’re not, because we think that doing so will make us more well-liked among others. At other times we try to be like someone else we know, because we want a life just like theirs. For some reason their life just seems so much better than the one we’re leading now.

But who are we, really?

Are we comfortable with who we are, and do we love ourselves for that? Are we able to accept our flaws, or do we try to cover them all, to not just fool others but also ourselves, to pretend that they don’t exist? Are we afraid to express our true emotions because it may shatter the image others have of us?

Can we truly be happy if we live our lives hiding behind a mask?

Just a little something to think about.

If anyone is interested, you can view the unsubbed trailer below:

Subbed versions of the movie can be found on Crunchyroll and Youtube.