Only Yesterday

I was lucky enough to obtain a set of "Studio Ghibli" anime films on DVD including the some of the best of Myazaki etc. These film are Japanese with English subtitles, I think a LOT would be lost in any dubbed version.

I thought I'd give this film a try first, never having heard of it...

It is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen, anime or not. It truly defines "adult anime" in the best sense of the word. I would agree with many of the comments already expressed, especially the use of animation to express the exhilaration of childhood joy.

The fact is, this film packs in so many genuinely clever, poignant and laugh out loud funny observations on adult and child life I am really surprised it is not more well known. How many films can make eating a pineapple such an utterly fascinating,touching and meaningful scene?!

This film is basically the story of a 27 year old woman (NOT a middle aged woman!) who is starting to think that life is passing her by and starts thinking of what she really wants and is important in life. She carries the memories of her childhood with her and these flash back as a parallel story to the present in an unbelievably delightful way! We truly see her (very sharply observed and funny/poignant)childhood and what made her character.

This film is so uplifting! Do be sure to catch all of the ending too! I thought it caught the best parts of My Neighbor Totoro for a 20-something audience!

Mike.

This is probably my favorite animated film of all -- and now it looks even more beautiful than ever (thanks to the Japnese DVD release). This is a story of a 20-something "office lady" who is vaguely dissatisfied with what she sees as increasingly pointless life in the big city. As she visits the rural family of her sister's husband for a working vacation, she also revisits her fifth grade self. (The contemporary scenes are done in a fairly realistic fashion, the flashbacks have a lovely pastel look -- that would later be used even more extensively in "Our Neighbors, the Yamadas"). This film does not draw upon cartoons for its background, but on the films of Ozu and Naruse. The intelligence and sublety of the characterization is extraordinary. This also has a very appealing use of Hungarian folk music (the favored music of our heroine's young farmer friend). If you've never before sobbed tears of joy over closing credits before, you will here. (It never fails for me -- at about 7 times and counting). While Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies" may have a more timely (and harrowing) tale to tell, I think this understated little story is even more beautiful and effective.

This is the question to be asked, even for the fans (like me) of "grave of the fireflies". Compared to all the other ghibli movies, this real masterwork has been unfairly unrecognized. Forget about the anime you watched so far, it's completely different, more adult, more realistic, more... life-like. No big eyes (well, the flashback are somehow "very 60's", but that's the purpose!), no screams, no ultrasonic voices; just characters treated as they were true actors. For example the pineapple scene or the mathematics exercise scene are the most incredible daily life pictures i've ever seen! And the final credits will have you wipe some tears... Watch it and make your friends watch it too. Don't be surprised by its length. It's fun, sad, real, touching, moving whatever you want... I still dream it will be released abroad, one day... who knows? Talk about it around you and maybe this could happen. Takahata definitely deserves it!

This is one of Studio Ghibli's less known films. It tells the story of middle-aged Taeko's gradual realization of her love for the Japanese countryside. Through frequent funny and realistic childhood coming-of-age flashbacks we see that even during moments when life seems hopelessly complicated, it's really quite simple. On a similar note, the ability of anime to refine the needlessly complicated to its essence is one of its great qualities in my opinion. The scene in which little Taeko merrily walks into the sky is an (exaggerated) example of this ability. A live action attempt to show childhood elation would be much more strained. The film does glorify farm living, but doesn't gloss over the difficulties to the extent that most films do. I was skeptical of any animated film's ability to inspire emotion for the beauty of the countryside. I mean... it's just drawings that presume to represent the real thing right? Well, the animators obviously did their research. The scenery isn't artificially...scenic, but it is very beautiful in a subdued, natural way. What most impresses me is the constantly calm mood of the film. Where other films would escalate certain situations to cheesy melodramatics, this film keeps it's feet on the ground (except for little Taeko... I love that scene). On a final note, the voice acting was superb, and the famous (among otaku) ending sequence is very uplifting. If Miramax releases a subtitled version of this, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.

Imagine a commonplace story in commonplace settings with a not so immensely interesting main character (a bit like you and me) and a pastoral kinda hippie-message... and it works!

This is another memory-thingie from Japan (they are obsessed with memory there, is that because of the Meiji period? who knows), from the genius who brought us Grave of the Fireflies.

The story's so simple: a young woman in her late 20s doesn't have any real problems, is kind of ready for the rest of her life to happen, but it's just not happening. Something seems to be in the way of her accepting the possibility of happiness in the simple things that she finds on her way, and that that might just be what she's looking for and therefore enough.

A trip to the countryside brings back memories of her childhood as the youngest of three in a middle-of the road household in late 60's Japan. The thing is, it is SO well-done. Often, films focus on the misery of this life and the sweet innocent splendor of youth. This one turns it upside down, and not by depicting a horrible childhood which has to be "taken care of". Just by looking at things the way a child does.

It's often the little things, that seem of no importance to adults, that mould a child, shape it's personality. The "small killings" so to speak. Events no one notices and no one readily remembers, but no one really forgets either. And when you remember them, they hurt in a way that you find unreasonable.

So with this film. The flashbacks of not really a "missed opportunity" childhood, but rather of small events that stuck, chills you and sometimes fills you with warmth. It suggests at the same time that though there might be events that made her what she is, she also always was who she is, and it's the interplay between who you are and what you encounter that shape your life. You might say "it might have gone a different way", but then again it didn't exactly because you are you. Very Tao if you ask me. How it ends... just go and find out.

The fact that the film, entirely inconspicuously, manages to pull it off to tell that in images, makes it great art. The subtitles are hazardous (sometimes too fast, too much on the screen...), but let that not spoil the splendor. Get out and rent it now. I bought it.