Daigo Matsui’s subversion of time-travel romance is a bittersweet tribute to the power of supporting character energy
On the surface, Rewrite is about the summer that changed high schooler Miyuki’s (Elaiza Ikeda) life — starting the day she learns the new transfer student, Yasuhiro (Kei Adachi), is a time traveler from 300 years in the future. Inspired by an old YA novel about a time traveler visiting her seaside village, Yasuhiro devised a way to experience a nostalgic summer in the past. Together, Miyuki and Yasuhiro share an idyllic season of summer festivals and beach days, until an accident sends Miyuki ten years into the future–where her future self reveals she wrote Yasuhiro’s beloved novel.
When Yasuhiro returns to his own time, Miyuki dedicates the next decade to honing her craft, determined to publish the book and complete the time loop by passing it to her younger self. But on the appointed day, her younger self never appears. Has Miyuki’s knowledge of the future altered the past, or was there more to Yasuhiro’s visit than she ever realized?
Adapted from the 2012 novel by Haruka Hojo (of Bilocation fame), Rewrite is a hilarious and heartfelt love letter to youth dramas and time-loop capers. In its first third, director Daigo Matsui leans into the familiar tropes of Japanese YA romances: magical boys, bonding at after-school clubs, rooftop reflections on life and uncertain futures, and summer festival dates beneath dazzling fireworks. Many of Rewrite’s time-travel and stylistic flourishes directly reference Yasutaka Tsutsui’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, even relocating Hojo’s story to the seaside hometown of Nobuhiko Obayashi, who directed Girl’s much-admired live-action adaptation.
That very familiarity (and audiences’ likely affection for Tsutsui’s time-travel classic) becomes Matsui and co-writer Makoto Ueda’s sharpest comedic weapon. After grounding Rewrite in warm, nostalgic territory, Matsui and Ueda gleefully upend the conventions of the time-loop romance. While the premise teases a classic closed loop, a clever twist reveals Rewrite‘s real aim: to skewer the “main character energy” that so often defines these protagonists. By opening with the deliberate un-resolution of the time loop that came to wholly define Miyuki’s life, Rewrite offers a refreshingly self-aware take on the genre, suggesting that while our choices shape our lives and affect others, it’s hubris to believe the world revolves solely around us — even across decades and centuries. It’s a joyous, surprisingly emotional story, told with confidence and respect for the audience’s familiarity with coming-of-age tales and their ability to follow the emotional and narrative intricacies of a fractured timeline. The result is a profoundly satisfying and resonant payoff for that trust.
As in Ueda’s earlier time-travel features, including the excellent Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and River, Matsui and Ueda wring remarkable mileage from a deceptively simple premise. Stray details that seem like mere slice-of-life texture become vitally crucial in unexpected ways, as Miyuki comes to understand the real scope of her life-changing childhood memories. Yasuhiko’s secret collaborations with another classmate, Shigeru (Yuki Kura) give Ueda’s signature time-loop trickery greater comedic and emotional heft, particularly in a bravura extended sequence at a summer festival: what Miyuki and the audience perceived as the perfect culmination of a blissful romance is for Shigeru a personal logistical nightmare. Rewrite is a witty, welcome reinvention of time travel stories in the vein of Groundhog Day, Timecrimes, and Mamoru Hosoda’s own adaptation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, showing how easily characters mistake their limited perspective for the center of the story – when in reality, they’re just one small part of countless others.
One of Rewrite’s greatest strengths lies in Matsui’s skilled ensemble, all of whom are tasked with playing both their high school and older selves. Lead Elaiza Ikeda shines as Miyuki, deftly balancing youthful energy with a measured adult apprehension, capturing how our younger and older selves echo one another across decades. As Rewrite re-evaluates its own premise, Matsui’s scope grows to showcase the talents of his supporting cast. Kei Adachi plays Yasuhiko as a deliberate cipher, a choice that pays off as the film invites us to question his less-than-noble intentions toward Miyuki and others. Kura is hilariously effective as Shigeru, Yasuhiko’s frazzled but loyal assistant in his time-travel schemes. Ai Hashimoto (The Inerasable) as shy classmate Tomoe also excels in the more subtle challenge of playing a deliberately understated character who becomes pivotal as the story builds to its dramatic climax. Having the actors portray both their teenage and adult selves is a risky narrative gambit. Still, it pays off beautifully here, showcasing their range and underscoring how youthful recklessness evolves into more nuanced, often melancholy adulthood. It also keeps the audience engaged, as characters continually resurface with surprising but fully earned significance.
It’s this final element that allows Rewrite to stick the landing, as Matsui and Ueda bring their skewering of time-travel tropes full circle. Miyuki begins as a seemingly classic romantic protagonist, only to realize how much of a supporting character she truly is — but, in turn, discovers how vital that role is to the lives around her. Without spoiling specifics, the conclusion perfectly caps Rewrite’s earnest meditation on self-worth and self-reflection, revealing how the endless possibilities of time-travel romance mask deeper currents of regret and doubt that often take a lifetime to understand.
Time-travel stories often remind us that it’s the things we can’t change that define us most, but rarely is that idea delivered with such ego-less ambition and compassion. In a story about crafting the perfect narrative for our lives, Rewrite understands that the only way to do so is to live an unpredictable, imperfect, even unimportant life — one worth retelling again and again precisely for those reasons.
Rewrite had its North American premiere at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival. It is currently seeking international distribution.
