I Are You, You Am Me (Exchange Students)

『転校生』 
Tenkousei

Imported 35mm Print. Falling down a steep set of stairs, classmates Kazuo and Kazumi find they’ve switched bodies—a dilemma that complicates manifold as the two realize they need to live out each other’s lives, both at school and home. A gender-swap youth film based on Hisashi Yamanaka’s novel Exchange Students, Obayashi’s first entry in his Onomichi trilogy is colored by the filmmaker’s lively brand of humor as the two struggle to conform to the expected ways boys and girls must behave. Obayashi’s film offers an inventive mix of formal play—8mm, black-and-white, and color photography—all packaged within a heartfelt melodrama that functions not only as a goodbye to childhood, but as an effortless evocation of the streets of Obayashi’s youth: a display of classical orchestrations accompanying the late summer hana-bi, small-gauge captures of trudging tugboats and the crimson sunsets of Onomichi’s rolling hills.

Print courtesy of the Kawakita Film Institute.

Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1982, 112 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Toshinori Omi, Satomi Kobayashi, Makoto Sato.

Part of Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years
February 7—14, 2025

Image: © NTV/TOHO.

Japan Society programs are supported by 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, Anime NYC and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund and The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, George P. Hirose, David Toberisky, Joseph Rajaratnam and Dharshini Iolanthe Sivakumaran, and Film Circle members.

Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film Program. Housing assistance is provided by the Prince Kitano New York, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film Program.