Conceptual metaphors and transnational cultural reception in the film My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday

Contemporary Japanese films function not only as entertainment media but also as a means of disseminating cultural values that can be received by audiences across national borders. One element that facilitates such transnational cultural reception is conceptual metaphor, which enables cultural messages to acquire universal meanings. My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (Boku wa Ashita, Kinō no Kimi to Date Suru), directed by Takahiro Miki, combines Japanese cultural identity with universal themes of love, time, life, memory, and loss. This study aims to analyze the conceptual metaphors in the film and explain their role in constructing universal themes and motifs, as well as examine audience reception of these themes and motifs as part of the process of meaning-making in a transnational cultural context. The study employs a descriptive qualitative method, drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Wolfgang Iser’s (1978) reception perspective. The data consist of dialogues, visual representations, and audience comments. The findings reveal the metaphorical mappings Love Is A Journey, Life is A Journey, Time is A Moving Object dan Memory is A Container which shape the narrative structure and reinforce the film’s emotional meanings. The temporal structure, which creates uncertainty, also encourages audiences to actively construct meaning. These findings indicate that conceptual metaphors serve as a bridge between Japanese cultural experiences and universal themes, enabling the film to be received and interpreted within a transnational cultural context.