Tenkôsei: Sayonara anata (Switching: Goodbye Me)

Kazuo Saitoh (Naoyuki Morita) is the new kid at junior high.  He and his recently divorced mother have just moved back to the town where he was born.  Kazumi Saitoh (Misako Renbutsu) is your typical 15-year-old girl, with a crush on the class president.  Despite the similarities in their names, the two aren’t related.  They’re merely childhood friends reunited, with a couple of embarrassing old stories causing friction right off the bat.  But they’re about to get to know each other better than siblings.  They fall into a spring together… and emerge in each other’s bodies.

In 1982, Nobuhiko Obayashi adapted this story as Tenkôsei (Exchange Students).  25 years later, he revisits the material with a remake for a new generation.  There’s less dumb humor in general (though some certainly still remains) and less creepy bits about sex organs specifically (but some of that remains too).  The first half is largely comic in tone, but it becomes a lot more poignant as the film progresses.  Based on my hazy memories of the original, I would call it a slight improvement.

But not too much of one.  The problem is that the poignancy is achieved through an extremely hokey plot device.  I have to give credit to Obayashi for committing to it all the way, but it’s still really corny and cheap.  Despite this, the film does manage to pull off some genuinely touching moments, and I appreciate the attempt to take the body-switching chestnut in a more introspective direction.

The performances by the two young leads are good, particularly considering their youth and the degree of difficulty.  I was probably a bit more impressed with Renbutsu, but both hold their own.  The film’s visual style is a bit of a headache, though.  Obayashi goes overboard with the dutch angles (I don’t know if there’s a single level shot in the whole movie) and swooping camera movements.  Sometimes it leads to some terrific shots, but too often it gets showy and distracting.

If I were to recommend a version of this story, it would be this one.  It’s sweeter and a bit more thoughtful.  But both are kinda stupid, each in its own way.  Rating: Fair (68)

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