ReLIFE and the yearning for youthful exuberance
“If given a chance to become 17 again, then I’d say yes in a heartbeat. Not because of what I did during those times, but because of what I didn’t.” — Vinny, top reviewer on Letterboxd.
*Watched as part of the Japan Film Festival 2022
Let me start off by saying I didn’t have any idea about the anime or anything about the source material of ReLIFE when this film was offered for viewing at the JFF 2022. I went into it completely blank, having just read the synopsis and expecting it to be some sort of sci-fi Steins;Gate-esque live action film. By the end of the movie I was blowing into my tissues because oh what I’d do to be a high-school student again.
“Take the pill, Neo”
Something about pills that alter the protagonist’s life in sci-fi films always intrigue me. Though we don’t have Morpheus handing our protagonist Arata Kaizaki a choice between two realities, we do have Ryo Yoake, a member of the ReLIFE Program that allows people to look ten years younger for a second shot at life. Kaizaki, a 28 year old social recluse who quits his job due to reasons disclosed in the film, has been constantly facing rejection from job interviews and thus decides to participate in the ReLIFE experiment by taking the medication and becoming a test subject to experience the final year of high school again in exchange for job stability and recommendations promised by the ReLIFE organization on the completion of the experiment in a year.
17 Again
Though Kaizaki only looks 17 now, he still has the mind and mentality of a 28 year old adult, as he navigates final year of high school again. Thinking he can breeze through this year and restart his life again once this experiment is done, he soon finds himself in conflicting positions regarding feelings that he develops for another student in his class, Chizuru Hishiro. He forms a strong bond with his classmates Kariu, Oga and Onoya, who often notice his mature tone and his liking towards older stuff even though he is supposed to be a 17 year old teenager. Sometimes, he also uses his experience as an adult to give valuable advice to his friends who would soon enter their post high-school lives as well and manages to surprise a lot of people with his maturity, including his teacher. The ReLIFE experiment does come with a few downsides, like nor him or his friends will remember who he was after the experiment gets over and he reverts back to his 28 year old look.
Lost time
The movie shifts away from the presumed “sci-fi fantasy” and turns into a rather wholesome slice of life by the end, showing us how they navigate their final year and make plans for beyond. Personally, having just graduated college a few months ago and still desperately wishing I could go back to school all over again, this movie hit me right in the feels as it would to anyone who is still in love with their past. The brewing romances in school hallways, mischievous activities in class, dressing up and spending festivals with your close friends, these things are so special to us in our youth and yet when we live through it we never realize how precious these moments are and the weight they would hold in our lives going forward. The movie makes us sympathize with Kaizaki’s desolate adult life, and shows us how good everything about his life was when he was just a student, free from all these societal burdens. Even though he knows that once he graduates, his friends will not remember him anymore (because of the experiment’s condition), yet he lives and enjoys the limited time he has with them to the fullest. It reminds me of when people like us graduate in the real world, and we think we could stay in touch with others forever and that our friends would always remember us but something like that rarely happens as we all move on with our lives and forget each other.
If only, if only someone gave me a second chance at reliving my school days again, even if it’s just for 60 seconds, I would take it. Would you?
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