What Would You Change If You Could Go Back in Time?

 

If you were given the chance to go back in time, what would you want to change?

Maybe you would want to save someone who has passed away. Prevent an accident. Change a single decision that caused your life to turn in a direction you never wanted. Desires like these feel deeply human. Almost everyone has imagined them at some point, especially when haunted by regret.

This idea becomes the central theme in Il Mare (2000), How Long Will I Love U (2018), Mirage (2018), and The Call (2020). All four films use the concept of communication across time or time travel to change the past. Yet their outcomes are very different. Some offer hope, while others create entirely new tragedies.

Interestingly, those differences teach us a lot about how people view regret, choices, and consequences.

Il Mare (2000): Changing the Past to Find Love

Il Mare uses a simple but deeply touching concept. Two people living in different years are able to communicate through a mailbox.

There is no grand attempt to change the course of history. What changes is their personal lives.

The film shows that time is not always the enemy of love. Sometimes, all that is needed is an opportunity for two people who are meant to find each other to finally do so.

Psychologically, the film reminds us that human beings have a fundamental need to feel connected—the need to belong. Even when separated by time, an emotional connection can still grow through sincere communication.

How Long Will I Love U (2018): When Two Worlds Try to Become One

This Chinese film has a more unusual premise. A man from 1999 and a woman from 2018 suddenly find themselves able to meet because of an anomaly in space and time.

Unlike Il Mare, their relationship is not only shaped by romance but also by small changes that can drastically alter the future.

The film shows that every choice carries consequences that may be impossible to predict.

In psychology, this is reminiscent of counterfactual thinking, the human tendency to imagine how life might have turned out if we had made different decisions. We often believe that changing one thing would make everything better, when in reality, every choice creates a new set of consequences.

Mirage (2018): Saving One Life, Changing Many Others

Mirage takes this concept to a more complex level.

When the protagonist manages to save a child in the past, the life she knows changes completely. Her husband is no longer her husband. Her daughter was never even born.

The film shows that no change truly exists in isolation.

One small decision can alter the lives of many people we never even considered before.

This is often associated with the butterfly effect, the idea that a small change can produce major consequences in the future. What appears to be a simple decision can have consequences far beyond what we could ever anticipate.

The Call (2020): When the Past Can Also Become a Threat

Unlike the previous three films, The Call uses the concept of time travel to create psychological tension.

Communication between two people from different points in time initially seems like an opportunity for them to help each other. However, everything changes when one of them begins using that ability for personal gain.

Instead of fixing the future, every change makes the situation increasingly terrifying.

The film shows that the ability to change the past does not always lead to something good. Everything depends on who is in control and how that power is used.

What They Have in Common: It All Begins with Regret

Although they belong to different genres, these four films are ultimately talking about the same thing.

They all begin with the human desire to fix something that has already happened.

To save someone we love.

To erase a loss.

To escape guilt.

These hopes are deeply familiar in everyday life.

In psychology, the tendency to imagine different possibilities that never actually happened is known as counterfactual thinking. We often say:

"If only I had arrived sooner."

"If only I had chosen a different path."

"If only I had told them how I felt."

This way of thinking can help us learn from our mistakes. But when it continues endlessly, it can also trap us in regret that never truly ends.

The Difference: Not Every Second Chance Ends Happily

What makes these films particularly interesting is the way each story ends.

Il Mare shows that changing time can become a path toward happiness.

How Long Will I Love U suggests that love sometimes requires us to sacrifice the life we have known.

Mirage shows that saving one person can mean losing another.

Meanwhile, The Call reminds us that a second chance can also be used by the wrong person.

In other words, time travel never truly solves the problem.

It simply moves the consequences into a different form.

Maybe We Don't Need a Time Machine

In the end, these four films teach us that what people truly want to change is not time, but regret.

We want to fix a wrong decision, save someone who is gone, or have another chance.

But life rarely gives us that luxury.

All we ever have is today.

Because perhaps the greatest lesson from Il Mare, How Long Will I Love U, Mirage, and The Call is not about how to return to the past.

It is about how to avoid carrying too many regrets when, one day, the present becomes the past.

(Uwie Puspita)