Part of the 2026 season: Knowing Me, Knowing You
I Am What I Am
Sobakasu, そばかす
Director TAMADA Shinya
Cast MIURA Toko, MAEDA Atsuko, KITAMURA Takumi, ITO Marika
2022, 104 min, English subtitles
Thirty-year-old SOBATA Kasumi (MIURA Toko) works at a call centre and lives at home with her family. Frustrated in her dream of becoming a classic musician and constantly pestered by her worrisome mother, who is desperate to see her married, Kasumi feels adrift. Unable to express how she truly feels, she even reluctantly attends an omiai — an arranged marriage interview — to satisfy her mother’s desire to find her a suitor. The reality is, however, that Kasumi cannot harbour romantic feelings, and she would much rather pursue her other passions than conform to the expected path of marriage.
She changes careers to become a nursery teacher and, surrounded by unconventional friends like YONAGA Maho (MAEDA Atsuko) and a homosexual colleague (MAEHARA Ko), Kasumi embarks on a quest to confront what she truly wants, challenging traditional ideals of love and womanhood.
Against a context where romance holds a supreme position in Japan, I Am What I Am questions the need for love and marriage, celebrating simply being oneself.
© 2022 “I Am What I Am” Film Partners
公式サイトはこちら:https://notheroinemovies.com/sobakasu/
Past screenings
- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Friday 6 February, 20:45
- Firstsite Sunday 8 February, 11:00
- Tyneside Cinema Tuesday 17 February, 20:15
- Jesus College / Panorama Sunday 1 March, 14:00
- Dundee Contemporary Arts Wednesday 11 March, 18:00
- Phoenix, Leicester Monday 23 March, 18:15
- QUAD Sunday 29 March, 12:30
If you like this you may like the following
All films in this season
A Bad Summer
Adabana
ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers
Blue Boy Trial
Conflagration
Ghost Killer
Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality
I Am What I Am
Kaneko's Commissary
Like Asura
Love Doesn't Matter to Me
Missing Child Videotape
NEMURUBAKA: Hypnic Jerks
Petals and Memories
Sham
She Taught Me Serendipity
Silence of the Sea
Strangers in Kyoto
Teki Cometh
The Final Piece
The Hotel of My Dream
The Last Blossom
The Man Who Failed to Die
The Real You
Ura Aka: L'Aventure
What Should We Have Done?




Blue Boy Trial
Love Doesn't Matter to Me
NEMURUBAKA: Hypnic Jerks