The memory of the 1985 release of 'Back to the Future' is still vivid. Back then, it was hard to find a home that owned a video player, and there were no cell phones or even the internet. When I heard that the movie was coming to our local theater, I thought it was just another American film, but this movie completely changed the imagination of my generation.

I still vividly remember standing in line at the local theater on a Sunday morning to watch the movie. As soon as the film started, the street scenes of 1950s America, the neatly dressed people, the gas station and diner signs, and the classic cars passing by felt like a different world.

Among all of this, the most memorable was definitely the DeLorean. The gullwing doors that opened like wings, the silver stainless body, and the concept of transforming into a time machine. That car was not just a vehicle to me; it felt like a magical symbol that could take me to another world. Honestly, somewhere deep inside, I still have the 16-year-old me who dreamed of the DeLorean as my dream car.

Michael J. Fox, who played the protagonist Marty McFly, was a teen star at the time, but to us, he was the very symbol of an 'American high school student.' His image of wearing jeans and sneakers while playing rock music on an electric guitar and skateboarding around looked so free and cool. The news that Michael Fox can no longer act due to Parkinson's disease makes me feel as if a part of my youth has vanished.

What I envied while watching the movie were the American prom culture, high school students driving their own cars, and throwing parties without their parents knowing. We were living a life of exam wars, tied to late-night self-study sessions, so that sense of freedom felt so foreign and enviable.

And I was surprised to see depictions of school violence, bullying, and social hierarchies in the movie.

I remember thinking, "I thought America would be different..." but ultimately felt that 'people are the same everywhere.' The scene where the delinquent character Biff bullies Marty's father was not much different from someone I could easily recall from my own classroom back then.

Now I am well into my 50s, driving a Kia Sorento to work instead of a DeLorean.

But 'Back to the Future' remains a medium that evokes my youth. Whenever I happen to flip through channels and find that movie, I stop what I'm doing and watch it to the end. When that familiar background music plays, it feels as if I am returning to my teenage years.

And the movie that allows me to recall those times, Back to the Future.

It is not just a movie, but a time machine that has illuminated a page of my life.