Rewrite (2025) Fantasia Review: Can you rewrite your past?

The time travel trope is one of the most used Japanese clichés. But this one comes with a twist.

It starts off quite simply actually. Girl meets Boy. Girl and Boy fall in love. Boy says he is from the future. Girl encounters her future self a decade after a life-changing event, where the older version reveals to her high-school self that she will one day write and publish a book. Should be the end of the story, right? But no. Turns out, she is not the only Girl and he is not the only Boy.

Paying homage to Obayashi’s 1983 coming-of-age time travel classic The Girl Who Leaped Through Time, this version of Director Daigo Matsui’s Rewrite, chases the story of Miyuki (Ikeda Elaiza) and Yasuhiko’s (Adachi Kei) high-school summer romance and its aftermath.

Based on a novel by Hojo Haruka, this film adaptation is set in the seaside town of Onomichi. What initially appears to be yet another teenage romance, with a time traveler as the object of the protagonist’s longing, soon unfurls into an intricate cerebral tapestry—like a chess match that, midway through, reveals itself to be an entirely three-dimensional game of strategy and complexity.

Miyuki, a high school senior, is intrigued when a new transfer student, Yasuhiko Sonoda, joins her class. In a quiet encounter at the school library involving the smell of lavender and apparition acts, he confides in her—he’s from 300 years in the future, and a novel from her time inspired him to embark on his journey through time.

10 years after their high-school romance was cut short with him apparently going back into the future, Miyuki, now a best-selling novelist, returns to Onomichi. She is married to Sho, who works in the publishing industry. She gears up to go for a high-school class reunion that thrusts everything she thought into utter chaos. While at her hometown, she learns of the death of the class clown, Muroi (Maeda Oshiro). She also runs into her old classmates like Shigeru (Kura Yuki) and some whom she rarely communicated with while at school like Suzuko (Kubota Sayu). She overhears that her high school best friend, Tomoe (Hashimoto Ai), who strangely disappeared after a bicycle incident, is currently living in Tokyo.

Simultaneously, Miyuki has to confront plagiarism issues as it appears as though a book similar to her latest novel’s draft was reportedly published seven years ago. The story line was exactly the same– her high-school summer romance with Yasuhiko, right down to the details: First date, summer festival outing, the major incident and Yasuhiko’s final farewell.

Was he two-timing another girl? Was Muroi’s death not an accident? Was Shigeru hiding a dark secret? Was the class reunion going to be a confession session? What was Tomoe’s role? Was the book that could send Yasuhiko back to the future titled Girl Leaps Time, When the Girl Leaps in Time,or Endless Summer?

As the story unfolds, there are some heartwarming moments, like when Sho breaks down in tears after Miyuki seeks his advice on the publishing dilemma. Meanwhile, Shigeru’s deep friendship and genuine care for everyone involved gradually come to light. The cycle that kickstarted the time to be forcibly rebound is broken.

I went in expecting yet another run-of-the-mill cliché story, but halfway through, it became interesting. Honestly, it got a little perplexing at times, but it wasn’t a bad ride. The performances were solid, and the cinematography stood out, capturing the essence of the picturesque setting beautifully. It is a fantasy, so perhaps don’t expect every single detail to be answered.