Storyline

 

I just watched Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan last week, and there’s this feeling that still lingers even now. I wanted to pour all of it out—this mix of warmth, longing, and quiet ache—into what I’d call a review (though perhaps it leans more toward reflection).

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!

 

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Plot Summary: 

 

 image source: ceritafilms

We begin from Jonathan’s perspective. Jonathan (Dion Wiyoko), an Indonesian photographer living in Croatia, wakes one morning to find Sore (Sheila Dara)—a mysterious woman who claims to be his wife from the future—beside his bed. Guided by her, his life improves: his work advances, and his habits shift. But when Sore warns Jonathan that he will die in 8 years if he doesn’t change, she suddenly collapses and dies before his eyes.

 

Then, the story shifts. We see it from Sore’s perspective. This isn’t her first time coming to the past—she’s tried hundreds, even thousands of times to change Jonathan, always failing, each time forced to start over. In her loops, she learns Jonathan’s deepest wound: his estranged father, Seno (Mathias Muchus), who abandoned him as a child. Sore realizes that reconciliation is the key, not force. Yet, every time she tries to bring Jonathan to his father’s house, time runs out.

 

Finally, we shift to Time’s perspective. Each loop shortens the days and lengthens the nights, eating away at Sore’s time. Every time she gazes at the aurora, she collapses and dies, only to start over again. Eventually, Sore accepts what she cannot change. She asks Jonathan to remember her forever, declaring, “I am Sore, your wife forever always.” She fades into the night.

 

Jonathan wakes again, now filled with a deep longing and an unexplainable sense of being loved. That lingering love compels him to quit his vices, reconcile with his father, and turn his life around—not because of fear, but because of love.

 

Years later, during a climate change exhibition in Indonesia, Jonathan meets Sore again in the present day. When they shake hands, their memories of all the loops flood back. With tears in their eyes, they embrace, finally free from time’s grip.

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                         (Image credit: by Frank Olsen, Norway via Getty Images)

 

When I first watched Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan, I thought, “Sore is an impossible character.”
Who would endure heartbreak, failure, and countless restarts, just to change one person?

 

But maybe it’s precisely because it’s impossible that it’s beautiful.

 

Sore’s journey isn’t just about Jonathan—it’s about her. Every loop is as much about Sore learning Jonathan’s grief as it is about learning to let go herself.

 

This reminded me of a real-life story: Yasuo Takamatsu, a Japanese widower who has spent over a decade diving every week in search of his wife, Yuko, lost in the 2011 tsunami. Since 2013, he’s completed over 600 dives. Some call it grief. Others call it love. For someone who may never return, but whose memory remains deeply present.

 

                                                        Yasuo Takamatsu, a man who can't be moved
 

Sore’s persistence mirrors Yasuo’s love: futile in human terms, but profound and deeply moving. And just like Yasuo’s quiet devotion, Sore’s love isn’t futile after all—because Jonathan does change.

 

Not out of fear. Not because of ultimatums.
He changes because he feels loved.

 

"Orang berubah bukan karena rasa takut, tapi karena dicintai." – Jonathan

 

It reminds me of 1 John 4:18:

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."

 

Rules or fear may push us for a while. But love—steady, patient, unrelenting—transforms us from within.

 

We may not be like Sore, able to travel through time to make love linger. But I’ve learned this: prayer is an act of love that lingers. When words fail, when efforts fail, prayer remains.

 

I once prayed for a friend for years. Every attempt to change my friend failed, and I gave up. But I kept praying quietly. Then one day, change blossomed—not because of me, but because Love had been at work all along.

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It’s beautiful to be loved this much.
And it’s even more beautiful to know this love exists in real life—enduring, patient, and selfless.