I AM WHAT I AM そばかす

★★★★　(4 stars)
– Japan Times

“Director Shinya Tamada’s gentle slice of life drama is a refreshingly empathetic in its fierce defense of its heroine’s right to chase happiness in the way that best suits her.”
– Windows on Worlds

Thirty-year-old Kasumi (Toko Miura in her first starring role since Drive My Car) works at a call center and lives at home, often pestered by her mother, who desperately wants her to get married, even going so far as to set up an arranged marriage interview to marry her off. But Kasumi does not feel sexual or romantic feelings for either gender. Aided by her cheerful and equally outsider friend Maho, she simply desires to live without the rigidly constructed ideals of love and marriage.

This compassionate and beautifully-acted “anti-rom com” is a liberating departure from the conceit that romantic love equates happiness and a life fulfilled.