Look Back Review: A Brilliant Gut Punch That You'll Want To See Again

2026's Look Back is a beautifully crafted story that will leave audiences devastated in its final act – and it's completely worth the watch.

Published Oct 27, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera

Hirokazu Koreeda's 2026 film Look Back is part of a much larger legacy than just its place in the Japanese filmmaker's storied career. The first iteration of Look Back was actually a 2021 one-shot manga created by artist Tatsuki Fujimoto. In 2024, the story was first adapted into a film, with the hand-drawn anime, also titled Look Back, coming in at just under an hour.

Now, with Koreeda's take on the story, main characters Fujino, played by Natsuki Deguchi, and Kyomoto, played by Aju Makita (with their younger selves played by Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada, respectively) have finally been rendered in live-action. Though this feature film has a considerably longer, 100-minute run time, the story arc of Look Back has largely stayed the same throughout its many transformations.

Fujino and Kyomoto start out as elementary school students, both of whom are aspiring manga artists. However, whereas Fujino is an outgoing, vibrant young girl who consistently publishes her work in the school paper, Kyomoto is described as a recluse who avoids school and primarily stays inside of her home. At first, the two have a massive rivalry – mainly from Fujino's perspective, notably – but that develops into a full-blown friendship, and, eventually, shared career, that brings about success and a closer bond as much as it does pain and loss.

Look Back's Representation Of Girlhood Is Pure Artistry

Look Back has many admirable qualities, from Koreeda's quiet focus on the very act of drawing, which highlights both the hand movements of the artist as well as what that translates to on the page, to the level of depth that the movie's characters are afforded, Fujino and Kyomoto especially. However, what emerges as Look Back's greatest accomplishment is how beautifully the film captures girlhood. Not just standard-fare, cinema girlhood of childhood games and cherished friendships, but actual, complex girlhood, complete with some uglier tendencies like jealousy and isolation.

Yet, that complexity never detracts from how joyous it can be. In fact, the scenes in which Kyomoto and Fujino are trodding through the snow together, or having a fun day out, are among the best in the movie, and they become all the more profound when Look Back eventually reveals its gut-punch twist. I actually found myself wishing I could immediately go back and watch the movie over again with that new perspective – a sign of a great film.

Look Back is a beautiful depiction of girlhood that makes excellent use of the story's manga origins...

A key part of that is also Look Back's decision never to dim its protagonist, Fujino, who feels like a fully realized little girl and, eventually, young adult. She is stubborn, self-centered, and even mean at times, but she is also silly, intelligent, and sensitive. Kyomoto, in fairness, is less fleshed out, largely because the audience is more often than not seeing her through Fujino's eyes. That shifts to a degree over the course of the movie, though, particularly in the film's final act.

Look Back deserves its flowers for this representation at the very least, particularly considering so many movies still fail to capture girlhood (or womanhood) in a way that invites such nuance. At the same time, the story isn't beating viewers over the head with a message about girls needing better representation on screen; this is simply a story that depicts the childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood of two friends, and does so in a way that fully fleshes them out as simultaneously flawed and beautiful characters.

For those going into the movie without any familiarity with the manga or the anime, a devastating plot twist also awaits, but that, too, is done not to sensationalize. It makes the story, and this friendship, feel all the more raw and real. Too real, perhaps, but in a good way.

Even so, the film is not perfect. While the narrative feels meticulously crafted early on, that falls apart a bit toward the end, not only because the story becomes somewhat difficult to follow (which is, in part, intentional) but also because it suddenly shakes up the art style. While that, too, has a logic behind it, the sudden introduction of a different art form in the eleventh hour had me wishing it had been more playful with genre and form earlier on. There are also many, somewhat minor narrative threads that feel abandoned at various points.

In all, though, Look Back is a beautiful depiction of girlhood that makes excellent use of the story's manga origins, both in terms of the narrative and how the movie employs art on screen. And, particularly once audiences learn where this story is going, the film proves itself worthy of not just one watch but (at least) two.

Look Back screened at the 2026 Philadelphia Film Festival. It releases in select US theaters on Wednesday, December 30, with a wider release on Friday, January 15, 2027.