Shortly after having its premiere in Fantasia 2025, we had the chance to see “Rewrite”, a Japanese film that shows that without using expensive special effects you can have a great story about time travel, romance and personal growth.
So what is “Rewrite”, the new film directed by Daigo Matsui about?
Miyuki is a regular high school student who suddenly discovers that the transfer student in her class, Yasuhiko, is actually a time traveler from the future. Promising to keep this as a secret, Miyuki and him grow closer, more so when Yasuhiko confides the reason for him to travel to this point in his past.
It turns out that in his own time, Yasuhiko read a novel set in Miyuki’s town and era, and he wanted to experience the things described in the novel first hand. Soon, when Miyuki herself briefly travels into the future, her future self reveals that she is the writer of the novel, and that she should work hard to make it happen. Yasuhiko shortly returns to his time after Miyuki promises to write the book.
10 years later, an adult and successful writer Miyuki travels to her hometown to receive her younger self and deliver that fateful message, however, the younger Miyuki does not appear. Confused by this, and by some disturbing news coming from her editor about her new novel (THE NOVEL) she was about to release, Miyuki connects with several of her old classmates and little by little more details come to the light about that summer that she shared with Yasuhiko.
Has something changed in the past? Or did it all happen only in her head?
Hold on to your hats, because we barely reached the first 30 minutes in a 2 Hours ride!
I’m a sucker for movies about time travel, time loops, paradox and all that. And this movie delivered a great story that kept me guessing what the hell was going on every 10 minutes after the younger Miyuki did not appear when she was supposed to.
I would advise you to not try to guess the ending, because there are too many twists and turns, and honestly, in hindsight, this ride will be more fun if you just go with the flow. The story is very well written and the characters are very likable, so overall I enjoyed the film from start to finish.
It is very easy to mess up the story when you involve time travel, and I believe that Makoto Ueda (River, Tatami Time Machine Blues) did a great job on “Rewrite”, and managed to cover all the corners with a lot of cleverness, humor and heart. There are some surprises that on a second watch will make you appreciate more the care that was put into several details.
That being said, I will confess that I’m still reflecting on the ending.
(please feel free to share in the comment section what you think happened).
“Rewrite” was directed by Daigo Matsui, written by Makoto Ueda. In the cast we have Elaiza Ikeda (Sadako), Yuki Kura (Shogun), Ai Hashimoto (Hold me back) and Kei Adashi.
Do not miss this one, when you have the chance to see it.
The Fantasia International Film Festival is running in Montreal, Quebec from July 16 to August 3rd.
Please check my other reviews coming from this festival, and the previous year!
