Have you ever had a friend who, while only being around for a short season, made a profound impact on your life? 

For me, it was a friend I made during a month at summer camp. We were both working in incredibly isolating roles at a remote camp in Canada, and became inseparable from the moment we met. Yes, she had a boyfriend. Yes, I had a huge crush on her. Yes, I awkwardly stated my feelings to her a few days before we were headed home. Regardless of the outcome of that conversation, this relationship taught me about myself, who I wanted to become, and what I would look for in a partner down the road. 

Combine this experience with a classic time-loop trope, and you get the brilliant Rewrite, directed by Daigo Matsui. The film follows Miyuki (Elaize Ikeda) as she meets a new exchange student, Yasuhiko (Kei Adachi),  who appears out of nowhere in the library. He reveals he is from the future. They spend almost every moment outside of school together for the next 20 days, bonded by the secret they share. Once deeper trust is established, he tells her that he came to this specific time because of a book he found in a used book shop, written about the very time and place she lives in. After an encounter with her future self, she discovers that she is the one who wrote the novel to commemorate their brief time together, creating the perfect time loop.

10 years later, on the cusp of the book’s publication, the loop seems to have broken.  This leads to an existential crisis for Miyuki, especially as she reunites with her former classmates who remember that summer for various special reasons. 

Rewrite’s masterful blend of coming-of-age, rom-com, and the more niche time loop genre, combining the three into a cord that’s not easily broken. The story upends expectations of these with each twist and turn. Time-traveling stories are often told through the lens of the traveler, but here we see more of the experiences of those after he’s gone. We get to see most of the characters both as teens and grown adults. The rom-com piece turns to introspective drama on a dime. Writers Haruka Hôjô and Makoto Ueda draw the audience in with these classic tropes and shatter those expectations as the film progresses. 

This movie adds a ton of depth to the time-loop genre, bringing empathy to those affected by the one in the loop rather than showing us a whole film of someone growing personally to escape the loop (no shade to Groundhog Day (1993)). It forces the audience to think of those people and moments that altered the course of their lives. Miyuki would have never become a successful author without her summer with Yasuhiko. She’s moved on from her romance with him, yet his presence looms large over the trajectory of her life and career. 

Rewrite’s themes go deeper than most Hollywood versions of these stories, and the latter half of the film is more introspective than you’d expect after the first 15 minutes. All the performances work well together, but there’s not one actor who stands out. It’s a true ensemble piece, with a few different characters taking the reins for a few sections at a time. While Miyuki has most of the screen time, she gives up the perspective at various points, bringing us more insight into the full spectrum of the story. It’s refreshing to spend more time with a core group of characters instead of rushing to the end of the story. This patience pays off with a powerful emotional resonance towards the end of the film. 

Rewrite is a surefire highlight coming out of Fantasia this year and speaks to our impact on those around us, regardless of how much time we spend with them. We can all be more thoughtful about how we treat people and the effect we have on each other, and this film helps put perspective at the forefront of our minds. 

Review Courtesy of Cameron K. Ritter

Feature Image Credit to Daigo Matsui via Far East Film Festival