I Am Me: Office Lady Yoko's Late Overtime
わたしはわたし〜OL葉子の深夜残業〜
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A prim office worker with a fear of men discovers a second self who enjoys one-night stands; they exchange diaries.
Yoko Misawa works in the editorial office of a small publisher. She is shy, awkward with people, afraid of men, and valued only for being conscientious. Lately something is wrong. However long she sleeps, drowsiness overwhelms her at her desk and she is exhausted all day, and her mistakes bring daily tirades from her editor-in-chief. Then a stranger stops her in the street. He wants to sleep with her again, he says; he cannot forget her. She runs.
One morning she wakes still dressed and made up from a night she does not remember, and pieces it together: while she sleeps, another self takes over. This night-time Yoko dresses beautifully, plays men as she pleases and enjoys one-night stands. As the other Yoko spills into her days, daytime Yoko starts an exchange diary with her, one writing on the left page, the other on the right, in different hands and different inks. They quarrel, trade news of their hours and slowly come to understand each other. Daytime Yoko has quiet feelings for the novelist she looks after at work. Night-time Yoko has always said she wants a rich man with a big appetite.
In the end night-time Yoko turns away a clingy rich admirer and runs to the novelist, who saves her from a stalker and carries her on his back through the streets. Night-time Yoko has him practise, all the way home, telling daytime Yoko that he likes her. Mid-practice she falls asleep on his back, and daytime Yoko, awake again, hears the confession and answers that she likes him too. He loves both halves as one woman. Together they dig out the old adult video at the root of her fear, watch it and play it out, and Yoko says: I am me.
Starring
Masami Ichikawaas Yoko Misawa
A shy, conscientious editorial assistant afraid of men, who discovers that another self takes over her body every night.
Yoko Misawa’s story
Yoko works in the editorial office of a small publisher, shy, afraid of men, and so exhausted lately that her editor-in-chief shouts at her every day. Her one pleasure is collecting manuscripts from a young novelist she quietly loves. When a stranger begs to sleep with her again, and she wakes dressed and made up from a night she cannot remember, she works out that another self takes over while she sleeps. She starts an exchange diary with her, and the two quarrel and slowly come to terms. In the end night-time Yoko turns away a rich admirer, runs to the novelist and falls asleep on his back, leaving daytime Yoko to hear his confession; she answers that she likes him too. With him she digs out the old erotic video behind her fear, and says: I am me.
Atsushi Tsudaas The novelist
The young novelist whose manuscripts Yoko collects, as shy as she is and secretly in love with her, who comes to love both her selves.
The novelist’s story
The novelist is a young writer as shy as Yoko, and secretly in love with the editorial assistant who collects his manuscripts. One day she dozes off at his house and wakes as night-time Yoko, who seduces him and leaves him bewildered. He comes to see that she has two selves. When a man who knows night-time Yoko accosts her in the street, the novelist drives him off and carries her home on his back, and night-time Yoko makes him practise, all the way, telling daytime Yoko that he likes her. She falls asleep mid-practice, and the confession reaches daytime Yoko, who says she likes him too. He loves the two of them as one woman, and helps her dig out the old erotic video at the root of her fear.
Why it matters
I Am Me is a low-budget erotic drama, released straight to DVD and streaming, that turns out to be about self-acceptance. Its device, a second personality who comes out at night, could have been nothing more than an excuse for sex scenes, and partly it is. But the exchange diary between the two Yokos gives the film its heart: a woman taught to fear her own desire bargains with the part of herself that enjoys it, until neither half has to disappear. The issues are sexual shame and fear of men, the habit of sorting women into the prim and the promiscuous, and a love that accepts a whole person. It was written and directed by Hideo Jojo, who works everywhere from mainstream films to pink cinema, and it gave Masami Ichikawa, a popular adult-video actress, both halves to play. The title is the thesis: not a cure, but a truce.