My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2016) Plot Summary Explained

Emi can predict events because she lives in a world where time moves backwards. What humans perceive as the future is actually her past, so she has already experienced events that Takatoshi has yet to encounter. This explains why she knows what will happen to him before it occurs.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Emi knowing exactly when Takatoshi will arrive and what he will say, hinting at her unique temporal perception.

• emi abilities
• time prediction
• future knowledge
• emi powers

Because Emi exists in reverse time while Takatoshi moves forward, their ages only align for a brief period every five years. Since Takatoshi is currently 20, this month represents the final time their ages match enough for a relationship to be possible.

Foreshadowing: Emi's reference to their ages being 'aligned' early in the relationship hints at this constraint.

• time constraint
• age alignment
• five year cycle
• relationship limit

Emi's journal runs backwards from March 16 to February 15 because her memories fade as time moves in reverse. The journal serves as her memory aid, recording events she will eventually 'forget' as her personal timeline progresses backward. The dates reflect the order she experienced them, not the sequence Takatoshi understands.

Foreshadowing: Emi's insistence on keeping the journal and her vague references to 'remembering' things differently foreshadow the reverse-time revelation.

• journal
• reverse time
• memories fading
• emi memory

March 16 is the last day Takatoshi and Emi can be equals in age. As time moves forward for Takatoshi, Emi's backward timeline means she progressively becomes younger. When the day passes, she has aged backward beyond the point where they can exist as equals, causing her to vanish from his world.

Foreshadowing: Emi's warning that they can only be together for one month, combined with the countdown to March 16, establishes this final moment.

• emi disappearance
• march 16
• final day
• takatoshi emi separation

When Takatoshi was five, he nearly drowned. Emi, who was an adult in her own timeline, rescued him from the water. This event is significant because from Emi's backwards perspective, this rescue is her 'future', a future she had already experienced and remembered clearly.

Foreshadowing: Emi's claim that she has 'watched him since he was a child' gains meaning when the drowning rescue is revealed.

• drowning rescue
• childhood rescue
• emi saves takatoshi
• festival fire

Emi cries because she knows their time together is finite and precious. Since she lives her life in reverse and her memories fade as time progresses, every moment with Takatoshi is one she will eventually forget. His kindness specifically moves her because she understands it comes from a place of love he doesn't fully comprehend yet.

Foreshadowing: Emi's emotional reactions to small acts of kindness appear early, before her time-reverse nature is explained.

• emi tears
• crying
• emi emotions
• kindness tears

Because Emi's time moves backwards while Takatoshi's moves forwards, he encounters her at progressively younger ages as he grows older. Five years after she disappears, she is 15 when he is 25. Ten years after that, she is 5 years old when he is 35. The film shows this reversed aging pattern continuing.

Foreshadowing: Emi's explanation that their ages 'align' only briefly establishes this backwards progression.

• different ages
• future meetings
• emi aging backwards
• time loop

Emi exists in a dimension where time flows backwards. While Takatoshi experiences February 15 as the start of their relationship, for Emi it is the end, she has already lived through their entire month together and is moving backward through her memories. As Takatoshi moves forward in time, Emi moves backward, growing younger while he ages.

Foreshadowing: The film's opening sequence and the journal's reverse dates establish this concept before it is explicitly explained.

• reverse time
• time travel
• backwards time
• emi world

The closing montage plays in reverse from Emi's perspective, showing their story from her 'end' back to her 'beginning.' It returns to February 15, the day they first meet from Takatoshi's view but the day they say goodbye from Emi's. The film closes on her last moment of equality with Takatoshi, completing the emotional loop.

Foreshadowing: The entire narrative structure builds toward this cyclical conclusion, with the train station meeting serving as both beginning and ending.

• ending montage
• final scene
• reverse montage
• emotional conclusion

Takatoshi struggles with the possibility that their relationship might be predetermined or 'fake' because Emi already knows how everything will unfold. However, his friend Shoichi encourages him that the emotions they share are genuine regardless of temporal mechanics, suggesting that love's authenticity isn't diminished by foreknowledge.

Foreshadowing: Takatoshi's skepticism about Emi's predictive abilities and the journal's contents foreshadow his existential questioning.

• relationship doubt
• authentic love
• takatoshi uncertainty
• fate vs choice

Emi avoids midnight because it represents the boundary between one day and the next in forward time. However, for Emi moving backward, midnight may mark a significant transition point in her reversed timeline where her memories or physical presence become unstable relative to Takatoshi's forward-moving experience.

Foreshadowing: Emi's mysterious refusal to stay past midnight appears as an early clue about her unusual relationship with time.

• midnight boundary
• emi midnight
• time transition
• midnight restriction